In cas there’s a connection, I also found my Apple blooms in this condition. See pic.
Yesterday they looked perfect but overnight they turned brown.
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Oh my. That seems it can’t be good…
I decided to treat it as fire blight. After you said you had it without spraying sulphur and it could be fire blight, I remembered I had something similar on my pear seedling last year and it died within a week after those symptoms. So I pinched off all the infected leaves, pretty much evey leaf on the tree. Then sprayed copper on it. That’s all I can do for the pear tree for now. I’ll keep an eye on it,
On the Apple tree I didn’t want to pinch off all the blossoms in the unlikely event this isn’t fire blight. I wanted to see an Apple this year. But I sprayed copper on it anyway. Hopefully I didn’t cause it to spread by spraying on disease flowers and getting everything wet.
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I’m just using a smart phone so forgive me if I’m not seeing this correctly but that does not look like fireblight to me. I’m not seeing the picture clearly on a smaller screen but leaves curled up and slight discoloration Could be blister mites, sulphur burn etc. . Fireblight is a fast killer and you can’t miss it because literally the pear looks like it was burned with fire. Aphids cause new leaves to curl. On apples sometimes you see leaf curl on the early onset of CAR. This thread will help you identify fireblight http://www.growingfruit.org/t/late-season-fireblight/2548/5. Many things are misdiagnosed as fireblight but fireblight will kill most trees to the ground in 2 weeks if not stopped.
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Ok I feel a bit better. Maybe all is not lost.
I wasn’t sure if this is how fire blight start and in a few days it looks like tree got burned.
Hopefully tree will bounce back. I feel like I’m doing more damage than good with my spraying.
I spray one day all the flowers get fried (peach tree few weeks ago) and I spray another day all the leaves get toast (apple n pear).
Saw this fella today crawling around some Williams Pride fruitlets. I believe it’s Neopyrochroa femoral is, a type of beetle that is said to prey on other insects like catapillers. Glad I looked it up before deciding to squash it.
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What are you spraying and at what concentrations? I doubt its a problem but it might be worth verifying that you are not overdoing it.
I don’t recognize your pear problem from my own experience. The apples look normal, they are just dropping their petals.
I sprayed sulphur the day before the black spots appeared on pear leaves. I mixed 1 tablespoon of sulphur powder in half a gallon of water with 1 table spoon of turbo sticker.
Next day I noticed the pear leaves were black so I pinched off all of it and sprayed copper.
speedster: I do not think your beetle is Neopyrochroa femoralis, as that beetle has no dark thoracic spots, is more elongate in the body, and has other minor differences. Later this evening I will search further–nope, no luck.
Looks like an immature katydid to me.
That spray sounds like it would not do much damage. I wouldn’t assume it is fireblight however until you get more standard-looking fireblight symptoms, so don’t drop anything to try to control it which could in fact make things worse. If the trees are young they can have nutrient imbalances as they start getting going in the spring, etc - many possible problems out there that are not fireblight.
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Speedster1
Maybe ,;Asclera ruficollis, known generally as the "red-necked false blister beetle
And since you are in Wv. That would fit 
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Maybe someone can help here. This guy is in my garden
then Drew51. I think you sent me this mulberry? Maybe just sunburn?
Lol. Hard to tell. The redneck beetle has black legs according to the link you posted. My bug has orange legs like the bug I linked to.
Kill them?
Looks like a Lubber Grasshopper.Possibly an Eastern Lubber.They can do damage to crops,especially in numbers.
Here is a little information from the University of Florida. Brady
Lubber grasshoppers are defoliators, consuming the leaf tissue of numerous plants. They climb readily, and because they are gregarious they can completely strip foliage from plants. More commonly, however, they will eat irregular holes in vegetation and then move on to another leaf or plant. Lubber grasshoppers are not as damaging as their size might suggest; they consume less food than smaller grasshoppers (Griffiths and Thompson 1952). Damage is commonly associated with areas that support weeds or semi-aquatic plants such as irrigation and drainage ditches, end edges of ponds. Grasshoppers developing initially in such areas will disperse to crops and residential areas, where they cause damage. Thus, as is the case with many grasshoppers, monitoring and treatment of areas where nymphal development occurs is recommended to prevent damage to economically important plants. Also helpful is to keep vegetation mowed, as short vegetation is less supportive of grasshoppers.
Management (Back to Top)
Management of these insects tends to rely on capture (physical removal) when only a few hoppers are present. When there are too many to be controlled by hand-picking, insecticides can be applied. Insecticides can be applied to the foliage or directly to the grasshopper. However, due to their large size and ability to detoxify natural toxins associated with food plants, they often prove difficult to kill, especially by spraying the foliage. Insecticides that will kill lubber grasshoppers include carbaryl, bifenthrin, cyhalothrin, permethrin, esfenvalerate, and spinosad (note: these are the technical names of insecticides, not the trade names; these names appear in the ‘ingredients’ section of the label). Spinosad is particularly interesting because it is a biologically based, relatively safe product; unfortunately, it is rather low acting on grasshoppers, so it may take a few days to see results of treatment. Insecticide treatment is more effective for young grasshoppers, which may necessitate scouting for hoppers in weedy areas, and treatment of them before they move into gardens and crops. An alternative is to treat the margins of cropland, perhaps the initial 1-20 meters, so that as hoppers disperse through the crop from the edges they encounter treated vegetation and perish after sampling it. Because they are dispersive, and may continue to invade an area even after it is treated with insecticide, it can be difficult to provide protection to plants without diligent monitoring and retreatment.
If insecticides are used, be sure to apply them according to the directions on the label of the container. Especially if insecticides are applied to food crops or near water, it is important to follow directions. Most of the insecticides listed above are toxic to fish.
Insecticide-containing baits are sometimes formulated for grasshopper control; normally bran is the substrate to which the insecticide is applied, and it is sprinkled on the soil surface near the plants being protected. Lubbers will accept such baits, and insects are readily killed if they ingest the toxicant and bait. However, this tactic works better when the bait is applied to the vicinity of less preferred plants, as the hoppers will tend to eat the favored host plants in preference to the treated bait (Barbara and Capinera 2003, Capinera 2014). Treatment of field margins with baits can help to reduce crop damage from immature and flightless hoppers such as lubbers, though treatment of field margins is less effective with grasshopper species that are strong fliers such as Schistocerca americana
I use spinosad. Looks like another spray soon. Thanks Brady. They just showed up since I planted my garden so I’ll eradicate them…
speedster: now you are on the right track – “hard to tell”.
There are many thousands of beetle species in the USA and there are many dozens that have dark bodies and reddish thoraxes. To identify to species level, many things have to match:
relative size and shape of body segments
antennae type
patterns, stripes, and spotting
Regardless of the exact species, beetles that visit flowers and do not chew on them are not serious plant pests. If you were to see the same beetle eating leaves, that is another matter.
Neither species proposed so far has the combination of bi-colored legs and two dark spots on the thorax.
Speedster beetle identified:
Your beetle is a leather-winged soldier beetle, Atalantycha bilineata.
^ click the “Info” tab on this page for other information.
This beetle mostly aids in the decay of rotting wood and does not harm healthy fruiting plants.
It is the only beetle in that entire Tribe of beetles that has the combination of black antennae, red head with dark bar between eyes, red thorax with two spots side-by-side, legs with red tibia otherwise all black down to the feet.
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