#scale bug

[every-day-creechur]

Yew Scale Parthenolecanium pomeranicum

A scale bug native to Europe which feeds by sucking sap from the foliage and stems of Taxus yew trees.

image by Michel Renou

[onenicebugperday]

found this on the underside of a hydrangea leaf. i feel like it’s some kind of bug… thing? location: boston, massachusetts

It sure is a bug thing! It’s a cottony cushion scale bug. A lot of scale bugs attach themselves to a plant and remain entirely stationary but these dudes can walk around to some extent. Their reproduction methods are wild, highly recommend reading about it! True males are rare and pure females don’t exist as far as science knows. What they call females are hermaphroditic and can self-fertilize, producing only hermaphroditic offspring. Neat. Thanks for sharing!

[onenicebugperday]

@herecomesthefirstday​ submitted: hi! saw this dude a couple days ago on a coleus plant in boston, massachusetts. it looks cool and inat didn’t help me identify it, so i was wondering if you could!

Hello! Looks like a mealybug, probably! They’re a type of scale insect :)

[onenicebugperday]

@psyduckhunt​ submitted: they’re a little hard to see, but i found this friend living in my bathtub!! i’m in orange county, california :3 they were maybe about an inch long all in all

i also found whatever these are in bixby park, in long beach, ca!! i think they’re scale insects maybe?? or i guess some sort of fungus. i figured you’d be into it either way!!

Some nice bug friends! The spidie looks like a noble false widow and yes those are scale insects! Don’t ask me which one, I am terrible at IDing them :)

[onenicebugperday]

mealy bugs! they are so cute but SO bad for my plants :o(

Soooo cute! But yes unfortunately they love to suck the life out of plants. Females look like nymphs their whole life which is adorable of them but males turn into little flying dudes:

Photo: Public Domain. Sorry for the quality but it was the only free use photo I could find of an adult male!

[onenicebugperday]

In gonna toss some pictures of the babies from my current Heterometrus spinifer clutch your way, hope you dont mind! Also, have you ever really looked at a cotton scale? Like.. really, really looked? They may fuck up my plants, but they just have such a... a bizarre aesthetic to them. Anyway, I love your blog- your dedication to keeping people informed and stripping away misinformation and unnecessary fear around bugs is really something I admire.

Of course I don’t mind! I want to see all bugs all the time. You mean cottony cushion scale? They are very weird up close! Here’s a mature hermaphroditic adult attached to a plant:

Here’s a true male adult, which is uncommon!

Photos by tjeerddw and joycey07

The hermaphrodites actually reproduce with sperm leftover in their tissue from their father which will produce only hermaphroditic offspring. OR they can be fertilized by a true male which results in both hermaphroditic and male offspring. True females, if they exist, haven’t yet been discovered. Interesting!

Anyhoo thank you for your kind words. :)

[justlajuntaco]

scale or cactus bugs on a sagebrush for some reason?

[saveyoursucculents]

nosebleedlucas

HI, I believe this plant is a portulacaria afra but my concern is how much he drops leaves. Can you tell me what I can do to help my plant? I keep him at a south facing window and only water him when he feels dry. I really don’t know how to help and if you could help me that would be amazing thanks. Valerie

Hello Valerie!

I’m afraid you have a scale bug infestation. See those little brown lumps on the stem and underside of the leaves? Those are scale bugs (Example). 

These tiny insects are named for the scale-like protective coating they hide under. If left untreated it will eventually kill your succulent. 

Their hard shell makes chemical treatment pointless, so the first step is peeling off all the little brown lumps with a fingernail or tweezers. Make sure to get all of them! Either cover the soil or take the plant out of the pot while doing this because if the pests fall into the soil they’ll just climb right back on.

After they’ve all been pried off clean the plants wounds with a q-tip of alcohol.

When it’s all bug free I suggest moving the plant into a brighter area as scale bugs are more attracted to shade then light areas.