We are starting to see that black sooty mold on a lot of crape myrtles right now. Something many people don’t know is that this mold is actually the result of an insect problem. Scale is an insect that attaches to crape myrtles and sucks on the branches and foliage. Scale will then secrete what is called sticky honeydew, and that honeydew is what the mold feeds off of. So to fix your sooty mold problem, you have to take care of your scale problem.
Scale is not a very easy pest to get rid of. You can plan on doing a number of applications in order to control it. There is really no way of completely eradicating or preventing it. You just have to deal with it as it comes up and do multiple applications to control it.
Right now is the best time to treat for scale. As the year goes by they will become more and more mature, and much harder to kill. We will be posting another video on our method for treating it and what we use, but for now you definitely need to keep an eye out and check your crape myrtles. If you see any signs of this sooty mold, make plans to do something about it ASAP!
