What's That Sticky Stuff On Your Car? Blame Bugs and the Drought

There's a sticky situation happening in North Texas right now.

You've probably noticed your car, driveway and sidewalks covered in a gooey, clear fluid.

That's not sap falling from the trees but something else, as certain insects are going on a feeding frenzy.

“It can be a little bit annoying. I like to say, with the tree comes nature," said Sam Kieschnick, an urban wildlife biologist for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Tiny insects called aphids are sucking the sugars from the leaves of mostly pecans trees and processing it out into a sticky fluid called honeydew. That's the nice way to call it what it is.

"Aphids are natural. They're part of nature. So when we put a tree up, there comes a lot of other things that use that tree, not just us for shade. But other bugs will use that for its food," said Kieschnick.

Kieschnick says the drought has allowed the aphid population to boom.

"Normally we'd have a little shower, or some rain to help dilute some of the sugar," he said. "I don't know if you've noticed, we haven't had much rain lately. So hopefully with our next rain showers, that will clear off some of this sugar that they're secreting.

Pecan trees are the main target but many other trees like oaks, maples, and crape myrtles are dealing with aphids and similar bugs, too.

Kieschnick said luckily, the aphids aren't causing any long term damage.

"The pecan trees, it's a deciduous plant," he said. "In other words, it drops its leaves. So when we get a hard frost, when we start to experience a little bit cooler weather, it will go through this change where it loses its leaves. And with that, the aphids go away."

To solve the issue, you could spray your trees or your car down with water. The sugary substance is very water soluble so it doesn’t take much to wash it off.

"I tell folks if you're able to just splash some water on that with a car or if you have a tarp or something you could put over it,” Kieschnick said.

What he doesn’t recommend are harsh chemicals that could kill every other living thing in your trees, including lady bug larva and full grown ladybugs that eat the aphids.

"So people sometimes say, 'What should I do? This is annoying me. So how do I get it to stop?' And I'm sure that there are some pesticides that some people would use. I like to watch nature do what it does, you know?" said Kieschnick. "So right now, if I were to spray this tree with a pesticide, I'm knocking out a lot of ladybugs, too. And the meals for ladybugs. Our next rain event that we'll have will splash off some of that sugar. So if you can tough it out for a while, I think you'll be alright."

Kieschnick said mosquitoes are also still biting bad well into October this year due to the flood event in August.

“We had the rain event which added some new puddles, it filled up some buckets and filled up some of our creeks and streams, too. So mosquitoes will utilize that to form a new generation,” he explained. “Right now, we still are seeing some of the mosquitoes. When we get that first frost, that typically kills off a lot of those.”

For more information about the aphids and the mess they’re causing, click here.