Monday 15 December 2008

An infestation of scale

Yesterday I discovered that the pigface plant in my garden is covered in little white fluffy bits that on closer inspection turned out to be a cottony cushion scale species, Pulvinaria I think, in the Coccidae family. I don't think it's the famous one that devastated the Californian fruit industry years ago because this one has very pale blue eggs and that one has red eggs. But then, "I know nuzzing" :) Those little caps have me intrigued. Does each mother scale make her own cap? They look like tiny leaves.

Now, what do I do about scale on my plant? Apparently ladybirds like them so I might just keep my eyes on it.

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