Post by ellsie on Oct 18, 2020 21:41:45 GMT -5
With an encouraging nudge from dvg, we decided that it would be a splendid idea to resurrect this thread on this lovely forum. Please feel free to post any "creepy crawlies" that you may find around your plant collection, or even in your environment; it will be interesting to see different critters from different places! I hope this will be a place where participating forum members can help each other out with a positive ID, and also share in their effective methods on how to get rid of some pests that others have trouble with!
With the incoming cooler weather, it took me a while to actually locate some insects. I finally found this common one: Coccus hesperidum, the Brown soft scale insect on my currently quarantined Australian lime tree.
Brown soft scale insects are an agricultural pest, feeding on many different host plants. Because of their unique morphology and (mostly) sedentary lifecycle, these insects are notoriously difficult to eradicate completely. I have been battling these scale insects for about 3 years on this particular citrus tree by 'painting' affected parts of the tree with alcohol.
With their small, yellowish-brown, flat appearance, these scale insects are typically mistaken for small sun burnt spots on leaves, until a large infestation is finally noticed! They typically gather on the midrib of leaves, feeding on plant sap with sucking-piercing mouthparts; excreting the extra as a sticky honeydew fluid--which can then attract ants, "farming" these scale insects little miniature cows while also protecting them from predators. This sticky honeydew fluid can also cause sooty mold black fungus to grow, giving the leaves a 'dirty' look, and thereby reducing photosynthesis, and eventually plant vigor and growth.
While male soft scale insects are rarely found, the immobile females can give birth by parthenogenesis to live young called "crawlers", the only mobile life stage. Although the crawlers are the most vulnerable to treatment, they are incredibly small to detect, until they get a bit bigger and you notice them all lined up on a leaf midrib. This is when multiple treatments would be necessary to fully eradicate a scale infestation!
With the incoming cooler weather, it took me a while to actually locate some insects. I finally found this common one: Coccus hesperidum, the Brown soft scale insect on my currently quarantined Australian lime tree.
Brown soft scale insects are an agricultural pest, feeding on many different host plants. Because of their unique morphology and (mostly) sedentary lifecycle, these insects are notoriously difficult to eradicate completely. I have been battling these scale insects for about 3 years on this particular citrus tree by 'painting' affected parts of the tree with alcohol.
With their small, yellowish-brown, flat appearance, these scale insects are typically mistaken for small sun burnt spots on leaves, until a large infestation is finally noticed! They typically gather on the midrib of leaves, feeding on plant sap with sucking-piercing mouthparts; excreting the extra as a sticky honeydew fluid--which can then attract ants, "farming" these scale insects little miniature cows while also protecting them from predators. This sticky honeydew fluid can also cause sooty mold black fungus to grow, giving the leaves a 'dirty' look, and thereby reducing photosynthesis, and eventually plant vigor and growth.
While male soft scale insects are rarely found, the immobile females can give birth by parthenogenesis to live young called "crawlers", the only mobile life stage. Although the crawlers are the most vulnerable to treatment, they are incredibly small to detect, until they get a bit bigger and you notice them all lined up on a leaf midrib. This is when multiple treatments would be necessary to fully eradicate a scale infestation!