tiny black specks on everything

Anyone know what these are?
they are on absolutely everything, needles, bark, pots, wire, rocks.... you get the picture.

Hard to say if they are affecting the health of my trees or not, some of my trees have been healthier but could be due to other factors. Since they are equally concentrated on things like pots I don't know if they feed on trees somehow or not.

They might be coming from a large Mountain ash tree growing in they yard. It obviously has a problem, I've include a photo of its leaves, nothing like this appears on any of the bonsai.

Thanks for looking,
mp

photos coming soon as I work out how.

Hi Monte.

All you need to know about posting pics is HERE IF you want to try it out first, use the space in the sticky called Testing. Have patience - some things work better on some systems than on others.

Have fun, and welcome to the forum.

Fiona

Thanks Fiona,

I've been here before, but it's been a couple years & things are a little different now.

Here's the sick mountain ash leaf.

Oops, I mean here it is...

Do the specks rub or blow off leaves and pots?

Your ash looks like it has fireblight. It is a bacterial disease. My books say to cut branchs 12=15 inches back from the last sign of the disease -- hard to do in a bonsai. You should sterilize your scissors/clippers with alcohol or chlorox after EVERY cut. A copper sulphate spray in early spring will help prevent the disease. Mountain ash are quite susceptible.

I don't think the specks and the fireblight are related.

The specks look a bit like droppings left behind by caterpillars, but if there are no chewed leaves . . .

The black specks look just like what are on my juniper?!

Maybe?
The specks on your juniper look a little less symetrical & not as randomly placed as mine though, I just looked at my junipers & the specks are there but easier to find on the branches & bark than on the foliage. I think they are an airborne thing & miss the small foliage of the junipers.

they do not blow off, I can rub them off the conifer needles fairly easily, to remove them from pots etc. I have to scrape with a fingernail.