PESTS AND PARASITES

Within the wonderful world of trees lies another world— that of the organisms which harbor in trees as pests and parasites. Of these there is no end in numbers or variety. New home owners are scarcely to be blamed for becoming dismayed, as they often do, upon encountering one invader after another for the first time. This writer's counsel to clients undergoing such baptism has always been: Cheer up, few kinds of attack on trees are fatal. Study of the trees' foes-learning to anticipate and counteract them—is a sporting proposition in itself. You may lose a few skirmishes, but there is a great deal that you yourself can do to win this war. Only occasionally will an owner, particularly of young trees, have to call in a tree-service task force.

The trees' invaders are from two kingdoms—the animal and the vegetable. The former are insects (and one bird) ranging from king-size larvae of the big moths down to microscopic mites, mini-wasps, and scale organisms no bigger than a pin point. The vegetable hordes are fungi, bacteria, and viruses. These are all primitive plant forms, but there is one plant parasite that is anything but primitive except in its role, assigned by mankind, as a love symbol. This is mistletoe, one of the deadliest invaders of all.