Chinese elm Bug and/ or Disease problem?

Trees are Tricky

I planted two 30 gallon Chinese elm plants earlier this summer, and they have never really gotten dense. They keep getting sparser. I watered them every once and a while and they are on a 30 degree slope with full sun. The only fertilizer I've used on them was miracle gro. And within the past month I have noticed the leafs are slowly dissapearing. It wasn't until this week I looked closer and saw bugs eating the leaves. Caterpillars, grasshoppers, ants, and lovebugs, and spiders were the only identifiable species, but mostly caterpillars, grasshoppers, and ants I noticed were eating the leaves. It doesn't appear to have any disease.

So my question finally is what fertilizers should I use with chinese elm and what can I use to treat the bug problem?

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Eric Frei

No wonder!

Tell me, if I went to a famine ravaged place in the middle of Ethiopia and fired up a BBQ how many thousands of people do you think would crash your party?

Here's some of our brand names of products that could be used to kill those bugs.

Maverick
Carbaryl
Confidor
Rogor

Then there's some natural stuff like Pyrethium etc.

You should also apply some wetting agent, soil conditioners (not fertilizers) and mychorizal fungi. I hope those sprinklers aren't blasting the trunks and wetting the foliage.

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