The purplish black, wartlike bumps on this exposed section of a yellow poplar limb are female tuliptree scales, a pest that feeds on sap from the vascular systems of poplars, and then excretes it in sticky puddles of "honeydew."

State Department of Agriculture forest entomologist Tim Tomon examines tuliptree scale damage on a yellow poplar tree near Flatwoods.

Forest health protection specialist Clint Ferguson of the state Department of Agriculture looks over a stand of yellow poplar along the Little Kanawha River near Burnsville where leaf loss from a tuliptree scale infestation.

Poplar trees along W.Va. 5 near the Braxton-Gilmer County line have been left stressed and partially defoliated by a tuliptree scale infestation.

A truck rolls past a stand of tuliptree scale-infested trees a few miles west of Burnsville in Braxton County.

While the pest can stunt, discolor and kill individual leaves, such as these found on a Braxton County yellow poplar, it is not known to kill otherwise healthy mature trees.

A mild winter is blamed for widespread infestations of tuliptree scale, a pest that feeds on, and stresses, yellow poplar trees.