| SCALE AT A GLANCE NAME: White peach scale
or Pseudaulacaspis pentagona
INSECT CHARACTERISTICS: Females usually circular but sometimes irregular in crowded
populations. Scale cover is white, yellow white or grayish white in color. Cover is convex
and somewhat thickened. Males are more elongated and pure white in color. Male covers
often more easily noticed. Eggs laid in early spring, begin hatching 2-4 weeks later,
usually appearing in first two weeks of May. Second brood appears in early July, third in
early September.
VICTIM: Fruits such as cherry and peach, also ornamental shrubs such as aucuba, lilac,
privet, spirea, mulberry, dogwood, redbud, golden raintree and many more trees and
ornamentals.
PARTS ATTACKED: Bark, leaves and fruit.
DAMAGE: Bark becomes encrusted with scales; scale feeding weakens limbs and branches
and may kill plant if uncontrolled.
CONTROL: Spray superior oil in dormant season to suffocate eggs before hatch. If
infestation is severe, spray with Orthene May 1 and May 10, July 5 and July 15 and Sept. 1
and Sept. 10. Spray all of plant, letting it saturate plant and drip off; make sure
undersides of leaves are treated. Read and follow labels on chemicals closely. |
