Expert: Jim Hyland - 6/24/2006

Question
We are in severe droought in northern Texas, Plano arxea.  We
have not been watering trees as we should but now have started a
drip system arouond the perimeters.  We are experiencing
browning of leaves and branches of our beautiful bald cyprus tree.  
I'm wondering if these trees are subjectd to spider mites or other
insectes that could be causing some or all of the problem.

Thanks for your early reply.

Don Naeve

Answer
Bald cypress can be infested with spider mites.

Spider mites are a pest that attack a wide variety of our shade trees and landscape plant material.

    Mites are technically not an insect but more closely related to ticks or spiders.  They are extremely small and difficult to see with the naked eye.  The damage, however, is fairly easy to spot once you become familiar with the symptoms that spider mites produce.

    A flecking or stippling appearance on the top side of foliage of affected plant material is the most common symptom produced by spider mites.  Often a dusty or gray cast is apparent on damaged foliage.  Many of the warm season mites produce toxins during feeding on plant tissue, which can cause yellowing and leaf drop when populations are high.  Spider mites have a short life cycle and reproduce every 5 (five) days.  Often all stages from eggs to adult are present at any one time.

   Since you said the damage was a more browning of the leaves than a grey cast I would think the problem is the drought. It maybe a combination of both but the drought is the major thing that will cause death.