The public needs to be aware of Gloomy Scale and the damage it can cause to trees. No, it’s not that. It’s Gloomy Scale time!!! Although I sure do appreciate the fact that I can make money doing it. Almost 40% of the Clemson Plant and Pest Diagnostic Clinic sample submissions for home landscapes during 2012 and 2013 were scale insect pests, and of these, almost 90% of the species were the more difficult to control armored scales. It may also be found on other species including sweetgum, holly, and mulberry. Gloomy scale (Melanaspis tenebricosa) with armored covering removed. Don't wait! Coffee scale is a major agricultural pest in coffee crops. Asked August 15, 2017, 1:37 PM EDT. Oh, I know most folks are thinking since we do treatments for Gloomy Scale that I’m excited about it because I make money off of it. If your maples are looking rather gloomy and showing signs of scale, our Certified Arborists are trained to determine the best course of treatment for your maple trees. When plants are heavily infested, consider costs and benefits of treatment compared to plant replacement with another plant species. The hard scale lives and feeds under this spherical armor and does not move about the plant. I have 3 maple trees on my property that have varying degrees of gloomy scale. Tape traps for crawlers and honeydew monitoring are useful in certain situations for determining the need and best timing for pesticide application. I have an odd admiration for that little bug that is wreaking havoc on Maple trees. Contact a certified arborist for consultation and/or treatment. TriStar 8.5 SL is the longest lasting residual foliar spray available controlling insects for 4 to 6 weeks. Many armored scales are serious pests of ornamental shrubs, trees, groundcovers and turfgrasses in South Carolina. Schedule your free consultation today. Gloomy scale (Melanaspis tenebricosus) is a par-ticularly widespread and damaging scale found primarily on red, silver and Freeman maples as well as boxelders (Figure 1). Water your trees 2-3 times per month during dry conditions. One of the best-known in this family is Coccus viridis, also known as coffee scale or green scale. The best way to determine if scales are dead is to squeeze them. If a large proportion of scales are dead or parasitized by natural enemies, consider delaying a treatment decision and monitor the population again later before deciding whether to apply pesticide. I wanted to know if there is a person who I could contact that could spray the trees, or provide some assistance with helping us to rid the trees of this scale? They feed on the sap of plants, and a large enough population can weaken a … Look for gray bumps or white dots on trunks or limbs. Even after successful treatment, the outer coatings of the scales may remain on the plant material for weeks, which can be unsightly. Scale insects can infest and damage many of the plants we grow in our landscapes and indoors. A deep root fertilizer treatment can repair any nutrients lost due to a scale infestation. Other species of wax scales include tree dwellers like the cottony maple scale (Pulvinaria innumerabilis) or the calico scale … TriStar 8.5 SL has mulitple ways to work on contact, systemically, and through translaminar activity to control a wide variety of insects including aphids, leaf-eating beetles (Japanese beetle), caterpillars, leaf miners, scales (soft and hard), mealy bugs, whiteflies, and thrips. Scale in general can be broken down into two types: Armored scale and Soft scale. They do not secrete honeydew. Soft scale can resemble little balls of cotton (Cottony cushion scale) or have similar fluffy-like appearances. 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