What are these insects and will they kill my magnolia?

[SpacePotato]

Just noticed these on my magnolia. At first I thought it was fungus until I saw one move. Will they cause damage?

Well, it's a scale insect of some sort although I couldn't name it. My dad always used to scrape them off their apple orchard using a plastic car scraper- the sort you use in windscreens in icy weather!

Then I think it's a case of using a wet, rough cloth of some sort to remove any eggs left behind.

There might ants following them around for the liquid the produce too, farming them, essentially, ha ha!

Important to remove them because they are removing sap from the tree which will weaken it over time.

Thanks. Have now scraped them off where I can reach but the tree is at least 25ft on wonky ground so not sure how I will get the higher ones.
Might try attaching a brush to the end of my paint roller pole and just get as much as I can.

You could try hanging a bird feeder in the tree to attract tits who would hopefully do the job for you.

I don’t think by themselves they will kill your Magnolia. Pests are more likely to overwhelm a plant that is already in trouble

We had some sort of scale insect infestation once - the tree was fine but they attracted loads of wasps which was a pain and made the garden unusable that summer. We has a tree surgeon give the tree a haircut and then applied a winter tree wash every year till we moved.