The plant looks sick because the aphids are literally sucking the sap out of
the plant and not because of any other presumed "trauma".

The ants probably put the aphids on your plant.

You can use an insecticide to kill the aphids but since the plant is still
small, you can just as easily remove them by wiping them off the plant with
a sponge or cloth soaked in soapy water.

Getting rid of the ants is another problem.


Penny S. wrote in message
...
We have a little maple that was a volunteer that we moved several years
ago, it grew beautifully. Last year we pruned it a bit to encourage some
branching, again it did beautifully. This year oneof the kids got kind
of
wild and broke one of the main side shoots at the top "y" off, and we had
to
re prune to lower what ought to be a new "y" as the tree got pretty
damaged... the whole thing is pretty young, only 5-6 years, maybe 1.5- 2"
main trunk at the base. After this last trauma, there is now aphids and
the leaves look a little sick, I am assuming that the tree got stressed
and
is not happy. I can post photos if needed, any thoughts on helping it
recover? BTW, there are ants herding the aphids too.

thanks all

Penny S