Tropfrog wrote:

In this case we are talking about a healthy tree with 3 unidentified bugs on it. I think most people would say pesticides is not needed.

You can pick off three very easily. I agree completely.

However, hundreds is a different situation.

I have wondered why in the world people lived in Alabama before air conditioning and screens. Insects abound, and I have killed mosquitos every day of the year, and spider mites and ants with aphids are in the house on the trees every day of the winter. Picking them off would be a full time job. There are plants that are supposed to repel the bugs, but they pretty much don't. Chemical insecticides are pretty much the only reasonable answer. Fortunately in the modern world there are insecticides that counter insect DNA and are safer than DDT and other older insecticides.