What's eating my Japanese Maple?.

hi RIU, wasn't sure where to go with this one so I came to my fellow growers for help. Something is eating my Japanese maple. It's outside in the northeast of US. I can't find any live bugs on it, just black balls(eggs or waste?). A lot of the leaves are getting eaten down to nothing. It's a small tree, can it fend off some bugs on its own or should I intervene? I have 'quantum apocalypse' and liquid ladybug left over from my last grow. The pics were hard to get focused because was so windy. Any help?

My phone is acting up and won't let me add more pics, I'll try again in a bit

Damage:

Hi there. I love Japanese maples. My grandmother had a big one and I'd always stare at it and imagine a big weed plant lol. Sorry I don't have any suggestions. I just bought one myself about a month ago and repotted it and have been keeping it in the sunroom. I'm not sure if its happy or not, looks about the same.

The black spots on the first pic and the damage on the second leaf look unrelated.

The damage on the second leaf could be caterpillars or grasshoppers. They chow down like that.

The black spots on the first leaf look like bug shit of some sort.

Metasynth said:

The black spots on the first leaf look like bug shit of some sort.

Click to expand...

Flys shit like that.