The latest threat to our landscape focuses on crape myrtles, that summer-flowering small tree that’s becoming more and more popular as the climate warms.

An Asian-native bug known as crape myrtle bark scale has found its way north into Pennsylvania for the first time and threatens to stunt, disfigure, and possibly kill crape myrtles.

Crape myrtle bark scale was first reported in the U.S. in the Dallas, Texas, area in 2002, but was thought to be a warm-weather pest that wouldn’t spread beyond the southern states.

However, bark scales have been spreading “patchily” eastward and northward so that now the bug is operating in 18 states, including Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C.

Pennsylvania marks its northernmost spread.

Burkholder Plant Health Care , a Malv

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