Cedar apple rust

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. One state extension service got this query from a caller – “Help, aliens have landed in my yard and left orange, slimy blobs in my juniper tree!” Cedar apple rust is a fungus that must spend time on two separate host plants – cedar trees (actually junipers), and apples, quince, and others. On apple trees, it makes the fruit unpalatable, then overwinters as hard structures on cedar trees until spring rains. Those brown cases become jelly-like blobs with protrusions that do look like something from outer space. In Virginia, they once passed laws that you could cut down your neighbors’ cedar trees if you had an apple orchard. I love apples, but lots of animals shelter in cedar trees, and migrating birds, especially cedar waxwings, go crazy devouring the fruits. Now, sprays keep orchard apples safe.