Sammy

It looks like you will soon have lots of little ladybugs to eat all those aphids :))

L 0 L !!! Too funny! Good Pictures.

Apart from the amorous ladybugs. I hate, hate, hate those aphids. Had many a nightmare sessions with them, but that is usually when I bring things in from outside in the fall, or geraniums etc in the greenhouse. They multify in no time and that sticky residue is gross! Insectifide soap is like champagne to them - they love it.
Grrrrrrrrrr!
Pauline - VI

Sammy,
So glad you now know what the problem is.
One site recommended (to clean up a large hackberry) to use a systemic insecticide to fill the thirty foot tall tree with -cides. It would have taken gallons. And it would have taken months to translocate from the roots out to the leaves.
But we're 'lucky' that the fall Lady Beetles were imported to control a pecan pest (and the Fall Lady Beetles weren't supposed to spread past the pecan belt), but they did and now they are fat, smart and happy beetles doing good things.

These are different aphids in one way. They fly, or rather, they glide through the air. And they look totally wierd.
If you know cottonwood trees, you know when the 'cotton' is in the air, it's sort of everywhere. These aphids have little bits of whiteness on their backs, and it lets them float around. When they are backlighted by the sun, they look like small, clumpy snow flakes. (But not in a charming way.)

I also hate cottonwood trees. Those aphids are still flying around, but at least I know what they are. Frankly I don't like the fall anyway.

sammy