I'd trim them.

Suckers can be trimmed off any plant at any time;
you don't *want* those things to grow back!

I remove "suckers" year round and unwanted branches from my crepe myrtle whenever I feel it is necessary to maintain the appearance of the tree. I find that removing selected branches (rather than cutting them back) has never done any harm and you will also find that cutting off spent blooms on CMs will often promote renewed blooming.

Molly

Ditto! There is no bad time to prune 'em. They're diehards.

My neighbor cut all his CM's down to 3' in January. I had never seen this, but he says he does this every year. By May they were 8' high again. Now they are back to 12-15' and blooming beautifully.

I would just cut off the branches you know you don't want anymore. In this heat, the less the plant has to maintain, the better. I would hesitate to cut any major branches though b/c healing the cut could stress out the plant.

Thanks Ya'll.

maden_theshade: What you said about the major branches is what I was worried about.

I'll go ahead with trimming the smaller branches and cleaning up the suckers, but I'll leave the big stem removal for next spring.

I would take off the major branch in the fall when it cools off. It's less likely to get any bugs that time of year. And it won't be hot, which would compound the stress.