These are chomping my JM - help please!

Found these on my Autumn Moon. Not sure if you can tell from this pic, but the bark/tissue is definitely being destroyed. Can anyone identify and recommend a remedy?

Better pic taken with camera.

no idea what they are - i would nuke the tree with bug killer or if that is not your thing pick each one off.

That is scale you can probably just pull them off if not too many .. they will likely kill your tree sucking sap out of it ... they love magnolias so if you have one near by that's probably where they came from .. I have seen it just a couple times on Jms and it usually is a small amount ... there are also chemical remedies if pulling seems to damage the plant or there are allot on there ... treat as soon as possible .. just goggle it up scale remedies .. some will be garbage homeopathic but you should find something ... I think I just pulled them off but may have sprayed ... as soon as my magnolia died i haven't seen many. Davidsan

Oh you getting three gold stars for sending jpegs it makes things go easy ... allot of problems with this forum is lack of specific info or inane questions that are not answerable without close up jpegs and more info ... many times we just give up jpegs don't arrive and further explanations never come... I like Bill hope this forum gets going again ... maybe we have just done too good of jobs answering questions ;>) but for whatever reason it is death valley days here... It is a pleasant place compared to UCB forums and newbees should feel welcome to ask questions yah we will answer the inane ones too just please do jpegs be VERY specific ... and remember ID'ing trees is virtually impossible.... keep those tags ...make those maps ... get name plates ..cause if you forget a tree you will never really know what it is . And we won't be any help to you with any degree of specificity. David(san)

i plan to have fall foliage shots so that should get some looks - some are turning now which seems early - must be all the rain lately

Sorry that your tree is in bad shape Plantmover. It looks like you can only treat them when they hatch in the spring or whenever they become active.
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/dg1019.html#Cottony

Here is a page with some treatments. It occurred to me that Bayer Tree and Shrub systemic might work but this page says that it's only some types of scale that it will help.
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7408.html

I don't know if JM's can be sprayed with oil treatments. Does anybody else?

I would send a sample to your county agricultural person to see what kind of scale it is.

Thank you all so much for the helpful responses! Although we don't have magnolias in our yard, there are plenty planted throughout our urban neighborhood. They easily peeled off and I haven't seen any more activity. Will monitor closely as I suspect they were at the end of their cycle and as Doss mentioned, will require some proaction come spring.
Thankfully, the bark didn't look as badly damaged once they were removed; it is definitely scarred but seems to be healing well and overall the tree appears healthy. I sure hope so - thanks again!

OMG - I guess I have never scale which I guess is a good thing!