scale

Scale is a barnacle-like pest that I have found on stressed interior tropical plants but today I found these fatties outdoors on holly, maple, pyracantha, ivy...everywhere. I hereby declare them the most disgusting pest in horticulture. Pictured are Indian Wax Scale and they are white and fluffy and when you remove them and squash them, they bleed like a motherf*er. They attach themselves and reproduce like mad and then suck the life out of anything they can. Treatments include using a systemic insecticide and then physically removing all of the scale OR the better route (and more entertaining and satisfying) would be to buy a container of ladybugs and watch them march into snacktown. Until the feast...