Last year, we noticed that we would have individual branches of our red oak tree that we planted 2 years ago start to turn brown and die. Didn't do anything about it. This year, we started paying more attention to the tree and found these little brown lumps on the branches. Can someone identify these and whether or not they would be the cause of our dead branches? We are already having leaves start to spot where these little buggars are attached. Quick Google search looks like they may be "Scale"? How would one eliminate these things?

edit:fixed broken link

Yep-armored scale. Neem oil will work.

Thank you! Sounds like a fairly easy solution.

They're pretty resilient-May take several applications to get a good kill.

10-4. Out of curiosity, is there a soil-applied/injected systemic product that could take care of them?

We've had good results with Merit or Safari here in Houston. If you don't have applicators license to buy those-Bayer Tree and Shrub-but won't work as well or as fast.

Awesome, thanks for the recommendation. I already purchased the neem oil, so I will spray that as high in the canopy as I'm comfortable with, then try the Bayer to hopefully get the high ones under control.