What are soft brown scales?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

March 19, 2003

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Soft brown scale (Coccus hesperidum Linnaeus) is a common nuisance pest on citrus and ornamental plants. Each soft scale is covered with a chitinous body wall, a dome-shaped armor making the insect impervious to changes in the environment, attack from most insects, and pesticides. The scales simply "hunker-down" and wait until outside conditions are normal.

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Scales feed by piercing a plant with their mouth-parts and sucking the sap from the phloem. This weakens a plant by loss of the food manufactured in the leaves. They also set off a chain of events that can eventually kill the plant. Soft scales excrete honeydew, a liquid high in sugar content. The honeydew coats leaves where the scales are feeding. It is a perfect medium for sooty molds (Capnodium, Fumago, or Scorias fungi).

Sooty molds do not directly damage a plant, but the black mycelia grow thickly over the surface of the leaf, blocking sunlight and preventing photosynthesis. The plant is further weakened by loss of photosynthates (sugars and starches) from mold-covered leaves.

The honeydew also attracts ants like the Argentine (Iridomyrmex sp.). The ants feed on the honeydew. Recognizing the scales as good for making sweets, ants protect their "golden geese" from attack by predators like wasps.

A single soft brown scale does little damage to a plant, but a scale becomes a colony rapidly. Soft brown scales are almost always females; few males are ever produced. Males may be winged or wingless, but they seldom mate with a female.

Soft brown scales are not dependent on sexual reproduction. Females are parthenogenetic and ovoviviparous; they clone themselves by eggs. The eggs hatch inside the mothers. The female scales give birth to their young.

The University of Florida, Cooperative Extension Service has a great guide to identifying scale insects. To learn to identify and control scales, click on the link:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/CH195

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