Scale or something else?

Tiberious

I was looking at my recently pruned white stinkwood, and noticed some reddish brown things at the junction of three branches. My immediate thought was scale, but when I removed them, there was a white powdery substance underneath. This made me wonder. I took a few pics, and I would appreciate it if anyone could positively ID these baddies. Any help would be appreciated.

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Tiberious

Here is the outside of it after being removed...

Tiberious

Oops, the last pic was another closeup on the branch. Here is a closeup of the inside after being removed.

Tiberious

Well, it tested positive for spider mites.... fun.

So I treated with an insecticide. I guess that these pics may have been egg cases, or something down that line. Is anyone familiar with this? Thanks in advance.

TreeBay

These are nice photos. I would like to use a couple in the pest faq if I may? It's not that I don't run into the occasional scale myself, it's just that I usually reflexively destroy it before I think: "Photo op!"

What you have here is scale They tend to pack in right around branch wyes (Y) with the help of some ants and then develops into these huge carbuncles that overwinter the eggs.

" you may find nymphs, known as crawlers as they are able to move around, the older females loose their mobility and eventually die, but their shell remains to protect the eggs."
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/scale.htm

Scrape off what you can see. Check out this site for more info and recommendations regarding prevention and control.

Don't forget to check out the neighboring trees.

Regards,

Matt

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Tiberious

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your reply. I did remove them all (three all together) and used a wet paper towel to scrub off what I saw was remaining. Scale and spider mites, what a great combination! So far, none of my other trees look to be infected, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

As for using the photos, be my guest. I only request that you give proper credit to me for taking the photos. If I can, I'll see if I can get a closeup of the mites if any remain, but hopefully none do! If you need them, I think I have much higher resolution photos. Let me know if you would like me to look and send them to you. Thanks again!