Can Anyone Identify These Things on My River Birch's Leaves?

[Jonny Klobber]

Second year in a row now that this river birch has had anemic growth to start the growing season. And for a second year in a row I'm finding these nodules on the leaves. Last year I sprayed the tree with neem oil many times, and still had visible aphids and leafhoppers running amok throughout the yard. It was not a good summer for my plants... I was hoping this year would be better, but yet again, I see these things, which appear to be eggs, presumably of aphids.

Several weeks ago I decided to try a preventative measure and fertilized/treated my trees (including the river birch) with this systemic insecticide:

BioAdvanced 12 Month Tree and Shrub Protect and Feed​

Hopefully this stuff will work, and whatever these bugs are, they will hatch, then begin to eat the leaves and hopefully die or simply be repelled by the insecticide in the tree... But I'm open to any other advice about how I might stave off another summer of bugs and misery...

 

[Tetters]

Picture no 3 seems to be of a caterpillar, and all the rest show scale insects I think.
I dealt with the problem on some of my shrubs by cutting them right back really hard, picking off as many of the rest of the insects as I could, and allowed them to grow back. That worked, but took time.
If you use neem oil, you need again to scrape off as many insects as possible first, and then use multiple treatments to get rid of them. Either way it's not a five minute solution.
I don't usually worry too much about bugs on shrubs. They usually sort it out without any help. One army of bugs, if left will simply eat the next and so on, so I usually leave them alone.

 

[Jonny Klobber]

It's funny - I hadn't even noticed that caterpillar until you pointed it out! I picked off the majority of the leaves that were worst affected by these things. The tree is 25 ft tall though, so obviously I can't do that to the whole tree.

I will just cross my fingers and hope that the systemic insecticide does what it claims to do. I don't want to get back out there spraying everything with neem (or anything toxic). Thank you for your reply!

 

[Tetters]

Tree scale – Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment

Some species of scale insects can cause a great deal of damage to your trees. Learn how to find and control these sap-suckers before they spread.

www.elitetreecare.com

It would be a shame to lose your tree. I thought you might appreciate the above link. It may be worth finding a tree surgeon.

I would burn any leaves picked off if I were you, and any branches that may be cut off too.

It would be brilliant if the systemic insecticide works. Good luck!

 

[MiTmite9]

Organic horticultural oil works better on the armored scale insects than neem oil. (Due to the scale insects having those hard armored shells.)
Also rubbing alcohol can be applied; then you scrape off the scale once it is dead.
This is a 10 minute YouTube vid which may help a bit:

Whatever you choose to do, I hope it's organic control and not toxins.