I have got to have one of these camera attachments. Amazon has several zoom options. Just wondering if you have any suggestions for an upgrade. Bill
Olpea,
I wonder if you might be on to something. What if the pest causes injury making the trees get the Fireblight. It would be as dangerous as grafting or pruning in Fireblight season. They are in and of themselves reportedly not dangerous but rather cause secondary fungal infections. What if they also cause secondary bacterial infections? I have always thought insects spread Fireblight if the trees are in bloom or not. If a grasshopper chews on a Fireblight infected pear and jumps to the next and chews on it how would he not spread disease? http://www.virginiafruit.ento.vt.edu/psylla.html
Mike, those pics are nothing less than fantastic. Great detective work!
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That’s a good point Clark.
Here are several pics I took of a couple of pear trees which got hit with Fireblight this summer. The first pics are a Bartlett which was pretty much wiped out from FB. The last two pics are from a Harrow Sweet (supposed to be tolerant of FB) which was right next to the Bartlett (which is why I think it got FB). Heavier exposure can overwhelm the natural immunity of the tree. Folks were talking about this recently on a commercial apple forum (Google “quorum principle” for fireblight - very interesting).
Notice all the dead shoots in the background (the photo doesn’t show it but there are all kinds of shepherd crooks in the dead shoots, so I’m certain it’s fireblight. Notice the affected leaves in the foreground are not completely dead but only partially affected. I’ve noticed that’s how it generally starts in my trees. It sort of looks like pear psylla symptoms but I’m doubtful it could be pear psylla because I spray my pears practically every time I spray the peaches, for stinkbug control. The compounds I use for stink bugs are also pretty toxic to psylla, so I would be very surprised if the leaves in the foreground are from psylla. I’ll try to get out there and check with a lens in the next day or two.
Here are some more pics.
These last two pics are Harrow Sweet. I cut one scaffold off this tree from FB (completely dead) but I see I still left one attached shoot which died (last pic)
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Sorry I can’t suggest. I had seen these types of things advertised but didn’t think of getting because I was looking at a handheld 10-20 power.
I just happened to be at a place called OLLIE’S (close-outs) and there it was for $3.99 and I picked it up. It is nice but unwieldly when trying to get a moving target. You have to put it on the subject like a microscope slide under the lens. Try that on a moving tree leaf while holding the phone 
.
I will be looking to see if I can find one of these where the lens is at the end of a flexible tube like the one exterminators use to see inside walls.
If I can figure out a way to stabilize the shaking leaf…
Thanx all for the nice words
Mike
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That is exactly like my leaves look but have not had any shoot or branch die off.
Maybe I have “Fire Slight”. If right I want naming rights😇
Mike
Here are three separate shepherd crooks on this same Bartlett tree. The fireblight seems to mostly come after the parts of the leaves start turning black as in the photos above.
Would spraying heavily with copper now do any good at arrrsting further infection?
Mike
Mike,
I’m not sure. Most of the treatment is focused on preventing fireblight infection during bloom. I’ve got a couple Bartlett pears and have been waiting for FB to take them out. A few years ago FB almost took the other Bartlett, but it recovered fully and is back to a healthy tree. For myself I pretty much decided to let FB take out what trees are susc. and replace them with cultivars more resistant, rather than try to fight it w/ copper or antibiotics.
So far pears seem to be much more susc. than apples. If FB starts to really hit my apples, then I suppose I’ll have to start treating for it.
You would spray in spring to get any benefit against FB, I believe. It is only effective as a preventive while it is on the tree and FB season is about over. Copper isn’t very effective against it even in spring from my reading on the subject.
Earlier in this thread you said that you dropped off a branch at the CE agent.
When the diagnosis comes back please let us know.
Thanx
Mike
If you’d stayed a couple more hours you could have spoken to the CE agent personally as she arrived around 4 pm. Her first impression was FB but I doubt she has any experience with pear psyla. If I pay the $30 I can have it sent to the pathologist at Cornell who will likely suspect FB although there will be none apparent on the sample. I’ve been through this drill before, but years ago, before I even knew about psyla.
@alan
Sorry…
I wish that I could have stayed longer. But, I had a 1 1/2 hr ride back to my place and and this weekend farmer had alot of work before heading back to the City early on Sunday.
You had a nice group of people.
Thanx for the invite.
Mike
Olpea,
I had two of my trees get hit badly a couple of years ago. I sprayed them with 50 50 white vinegar and water which I realize is technically herbicide but it cleared up the FB. The vinegar is said to be anti bacterial.
Or the FB had run its course. How did the control trees do?
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Alan,
That’s a good point there were only two trees involved in that FB strike. Both trees appeared to be showing signs of a soon death by fireblight. Once sprayed they both recovered but not right away. The problem is with fireblight there never really is a control because if a tree is left untreated here it dies. I had two trees so far show the same symptoms on my property that died to the ground but at different times. One of the trees that died was a clapps favorite and one I sprayed with vinegar lived and was a clapps favorite. Is that conclusive evidence ? Its not conclusive the FB strikes happened years apart. Vinegar and water appears to have helped. Can we say we know with 100% what the outcome would have been? We only know that FB strikes at my property left untreated died. The internet is not always reliable but several organic gardeners supposedly used vinegar as a treatment. Logically vinegar does kill bacteria. FB is a mysterious illness like with all bacteria’s. My hypothesis is the FB strain in this area within the 65% humidity and 65% temperature window will go systemic in pear trees if left untreated.Here is one such website I mentioned earlier http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/life/gardening/2014/07/12/ask-amy-fight-apple-tree-fire-blight-organic-way/12552125/ and another website that is a .gov http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/29522/PDF and another website http://www.naturalnews.com/039551_organic_apples_antibiotics_truth.html and yet another article where Purdue says there are no reliable sources for the trestment https://ask.extension.org/questions/132334#.VkMugtNMHfo
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From reading your links the middle 2 were not about vinegar but about suppressing vigor with a different chemical.
As far as anecdotal testimonials on something as mysterious as FB, good luck! If vinegar and water actually cut the mustard, I guess a gargle with it might heal a nasty case of strep throat.
Time and again I’ve seem these kinds of claims fizzle at first scientific scrutiny, Organic orcharding is big business- if vinegar had any affect in fighting established FB in a fruit tree, I expect it would be established by now. That would be much easier to detect than a preventative.
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I will check the links later when I’m not using a smart phone and using a computer. The results were all over the place with some saying it does not work and others saying it does. I wish someone would do a good study and put the topic to rest. It did appear to work on my trees but is it possible it might not have? Absolutely I don’t even have the equipment to see the offending bacteria. We need an in season spray and vinegar is the best I have right now. Antibiotics and copper are effective when combined with pruning most of the time.
We often try things out on our fruit trees and some appear to work. Your right in my opinion in that it would take a large control study to get more reliable information. One of the big benefits of us trying things out is that it might spark someone to test the method on a larger scale. Keep us posted on how it works. Thanks, Bill
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Alan,
I can only make an assumption the concept of vinegar being used to kill the fireblight bacteria started with articles such as this Canadian article released from The National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health that reports "These organic acids are hypothesized to cross the cell membrane of bacteria where the release in protons (H+) causes the cells to die.69 As the growth of many pathogenic organisms are inhibited in conditions where the pH is <4.6, these organic acids, with a pH 2 to 3, are commonly added to foods as a preservative " See this link and then you will know about as much about it as i do. The concept is simple enough. There is no true research to back it up at this point. The article is speaking about bacteria and never about fireblight or fruit tree treatment http://www.ncceh.ca/sites/default/files/Alternative_Antimicrobial_Agents_Aug_2014.pdf.
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