Scale Insects: The Baddies of the Garden

What is an insect?

     Insects are living “animals” in the Biological Kingdom that for good or bad, serve a purpose, whether for food, pollination or even to “bug” humans and animals. What would we do without them? As food, they are a great form of protein and as pollinators, in my opinion, they’re even more important as that pollination on the right plants, creates food for us and for animals. Everything in this universe serves a purpose, simple.

What is Scale?

     Scale is one of the worst insects you can get on your plant material. There are 2 main varieties…Hard shell and Soft bodied. With names like that, you can figure out what they might look like. Soft bodied scale is somewhat difficult to deal with, and in the case of Magnolia or Tulip Tree Scale, can be squooshilly disgusting. Yes I made up a descriptive word. Other soft bodies may even look like small grains of rice.

     Hard shell Scale literally has a shell-like covering that forms in summer and makes it virtually impervious to any kind of sprayed insecticide. It’s trouble, plain and simple. This scale can be white, black, grey etc. and you’ll find it on plants like Hemlocks and Hollies.

How can I stop Scale?

     As stated, soft bodied scale is somewhat easy to deal with, but the trick is noticing it. The tell tale is the purple sooty mold that forms from the honey dew that falls while the scale sucks the life out of the plant. Spraying insecticide including horticultural oils and soaps can do a great job. Hard shell Scale, on the other hand, needs to be targeted in June, which is it’s crawling period, shell-less. Spraying oil and soap will do a great job. If you miss that window, we as an Organic company inject systemic insecticide into the root zone which over time, gets sucked up into the plant and when the Scale sucks on the plant, it gets killed.

Hard Bodied Scale

What plants can have Scale?

     There are so many kinds of Scale that it’s impossible to know them all. Some of the more prevalent ones in the Central NJ/ Eastern Bucks PA area are Tulip Scale, Magnolia and Dogwood Scale, Hemlock Scale and Peach Scale. Crape Myrtle Scale has moved in recently, causing trees to turn black and unhealthy. Scale can also appear on Yews, Euonymus and Hollies, to name a few. It’s a true Baddie of the insect world.

Scale on Holly

*** Plant Health Organics is a 100% Organic land care company serving Central NJ and Bucks County PA. We are PROUD of the work we do and know full well that what we do is BEST for you and our world. Contact us at 908-335-0553.***                    

-Joe Gentile, Owner Plant Health Organics, LLC

  With offices in Frenchtown and Monmouth County, NJ