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[sjc <indexer AT fairpoint.net>]

are lichens on your pear trees a concern?

What kind of lichen?  Are they cutting out light/air movement or????

I have lots of lichen on fruit trees here but never found them to be a 
detriment.  At one point I was convinced that they provided harboring 
places for insect pests, but observation revealed that birds where 
delighted to take care of that issue, and those trees with lichen have 
consistently performed as have those without. 

So am curious about why you'd fool with getting them off/out.  We do 
have different lichen here than down there, but the biggest differences 
are in the ground/rock dwellers (almost no umbilicarias here, for 
instance, and plenty more of 'red soldier' or 'British troop' types 
here, sometimes covering an acre or so).  We have in trees many of the 
cup types and some of the 'beard' sorts, but they don't get as long as 
in the south, although I think that is as much because the wind rips 
them off as anything else; in areas protected from the wind they get 
fairly long.

SJ