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English Laurel Spots
brown-internet
Posts: 4
Need help in identifying what is causing these spots on all the leaves of our English Laurel hedge that we are trying to grow. There are 3-4 consistently on either side of them stem on the back of the leaves. From the front they appear dark green. They are constantly visited by ants but not sure of ants cause the holes or are harvesting sap that must be coming out of them. Flying insects, wasps etc also like the spots. Plants have been afflicted with these for the last 3 years and we believe this is stunting the growth. Any ideas?
1
Posts
Do these areas eventually turn brown and then form little holes in the leaves?
Looking at the positioning, near leaf veins, I think they may be immature scale insects.
Ladybird- they do but it takes a while and not every spot turns into a hole.
Bob- shouldn't i be able to scrape them off the spots and see them? When I rub fingernail/finger on the spots I just feel a tiny stickiness.
Could the ants be forming the spots?
and I had tried neem oil last summer and didn't seem to help, albeit I only did 1 or 2 applications.
Not shot hole disease then. Ants will carry aphids up and down plants as they 'farm' them for the honeydew they secrete. Have you seen any aphids around? It does seem strange that the spots seem to be a regular pattern on the leaves.
More info on brown scale here - the visiting insects seem to fit, but the regular pattern not necessarily:
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=455
We don't see aphids, but maybe the prevalence of flying insects (and there are a lot) is taking care of them? I guess I can try neem oil again. I've read that more than one application maybe needed? I may need to be more diligent.