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Crape myrtle bark scales cover a branch of a crape myrtle tree in front of the Broadway Street Depot. (Ben Hillyer / The Natchez Democrat)

A split leaf philodendron is covered in sooty mold after sitting under a crape myrtle tree infected with crape myrtle bark scale in Cindy Meng’s courtyard. Adams County Extension Service agent David Carter talks about treatment options with Meng. (Ben Hillyer / The Natchez Democrat)

The split leaf philodendron in Cindy Meng’s courtyard is covered in sooty mold from the honeydew that has been excreted from the crape myrtle bark scale that has infested her crape myrtle tree. A leaf that was unaffected by the infestation, at top, is shown against the sooty mold covered foliage. (Ben Hillyer / The Natchez Democrat)

One way of identifying the pest is a pink substance will ooze out when the scale is pressed by a knife or toothpick. (Ben Hillyer / The Natchez Democrat)

David Carter shows how to measure the correct amount of insecticide to treat the plant. (Ben Hillyer / The Natchez Democrat)

NATCHEZ — Each summer Natchez crape myrtle trees line the city’s streets with vibrant blooms of pink, red and white.

Imagine what would happen if the flowers disappeared and the trees and surrounding plants suddenly turned black.

The sudden transformation became a reality for Natchez resident Cindy Meng, who, in a matter of months, witnessed her courtyard garden of knockout roses, ferns and philodendrons turn black.

Not realizing the culprit was a bug infestation living high up in her crape myrtle trees, Meng spent weeks visiting landscape centers and buying various insecticides to treat the problem with no results.

“In March I noticed that my snowball tree was turning black,” Meng said. “I was taking leaf samples to people asking them what to do, but everything they suggested was not helping.”

Not until Meng saw a recent Internet post from Adams County Extension Service agent David Carter, did she realize the crape myrtle bark scale had invaded her trees.

In recent months, the scale has become such a serious threat to the area that, if left uncontrolled, could affect the thousands of trees that line Natchez’s streets and enhance residents’ gardens.

“Every crape myrtle in Natchez is subject to getting this,” Carter said. “It doesn’t impact any other tree — just the crape myrtle.”

What begins as a small bug, can quickly become a mass of white, felt-like scales covering entire branches.

The scales attach to the tree’s bark and pierce the outside layer of the tree.

“The scales start sucking the juices out of the tree and then secrete a sticky substance called honeydew,” Carter said.

The honeydew attracts a common fungi called sooty mold that then grows on every surface covered by the honeydew extractions. The black mold covers the leaves of the tree and other plants under the tree and inhibits the photosynthesis the plants need to continue to grow and produce blooms.

“It is like choking a person from the oxygen they need to survive,” Carter said.

In rare cases, the scales and sooty mold can be fatal to the tree, but in most cases the trees stop producing flowers and end up covered in unsightly black mold.

“If it gets to the point where the tops of the trees are 90 percent covered, there will be no blooms and the tree will be black and sticky,” Carter said. “It just isn’t fit for a pedestrian area.”

Natchez is not the only town in Mississippi that has had bark scale problems, Carter said.

“It has gotten real bad in Oxford and in Ocean Springs and now they are finding evidence of it in Madison,” Carter said.

Carter said crape myrtles are no longer being planted in those areas and in some cases more extreme measures are being taken to address the problem.

“In a lot of cases they have started cutting trees down and replacing them with another type of tree, which is really not an option for us here,” Carter said.

Carter said one solution that has been shown to be effective is the use of insecticides with the active ingredient imidacloprid. One commercial product called Merit is available online and in some landscape centers, Carter said.

Imidacloprid is a common agricultural insecticide that has been used in a variety of applications, including on fruit trees, Carter said.

The insecticide is injected into the ground and needs to be reapplied once a year to be effective, Carter said. The amount to be applied is measured in relation to the diameter of the tree’s trunks, Carter said. Brand name products can be pricey — approximately $350 per gallon — but more affordable generic insecticides are available and just as effective, Carter said.

The pest has been identified along the bluff and north of town along Linton Avenue and Myrtle Street but is more than likely in other areas downtown, Carter said.

The crape myrtle trees in front of the Broadway Street Depot have been particularly affected. First spotted in March, the scales and black sooty mold now cover many of the trees in front of the building.

“Since May we have gone from one or two trees being affected, to now pretty much every tree (in front of the depot) has it.”

The pest is mostly spread from birds that come in contact with the scales and then pass them on to other trees on which they land.

The Adams County Master Gardeners volunteer group has expressed interest in helping treat the trees that are along the bluff and in downtown, Carter said.

Master Gardener Elaine Gemmell said the gardeners attended a recent information session about the bark scale and many of the members wanted to help with the effort.

Gemmell said that she has started counting the trees along the downtown sidewalks. Along the bluff and on Broadway Street she has counted 271 crape myrtles. On Main and Franklin streets and the cross streets between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Broadway Street, Gemmell has counted another 250 more trees.

“We have a lot of trees on the side streets,” Gemmell said. “In the historic district there are easily another 500 trees lining the streets.”

In 2000, Natchez resident Sallie Ballard started the downtown crape myrtle project, which helped provide 2,000 trees for the Millennium, Historic Natchez Foundation Executive Director Mimi Miller said.

One of three state champion crape myrtle trees in Mississippi stands in the front yard of the historic house Bontura on Broadway Street.

Miller said the crape myrtle, while not native to Mississippi, has been a popular tree since before the Civil War. Horticulturist Thomas Affleck owned and operated a nursery in the town of Washington north of Natchez in the 19th century, Miller said.

His catalogs and logbooks show that he sold more crape myrtle trees between 1850 and 1856 than he did any other ornamental tree, including live oaks and pecan trees.

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