Brown Soft Scale

Hosts:
These soft scales are found on many deciduous ornamental trees and shrubs. Maple, Oak, Birch, Elm, and flowering fruit trees are very commonly infested.


Description and Life Cycle:
Most lecanium scales, are oval to football shaped with a characteristic cleft located on the caudal end.

They can be variously colored, but are usually greenish-tan to chestnut-brown. When the females begin to lay eggs, the body becomes more rounded and dome-shaped.

Most soft scale, lay eggs under the protection of the female scales' bodies. Most of these soft scales over-winter as partially mature females that are attached to stems and branches of host plants. In the Spring, the females complete development and begin to lay eggs. These ... read morescales, commonly produce 300 - 500 off-spring. By mid-May to mid-June, crawlers hatch and seek out suitable places to settle.

The scale crawlers settle on the undersides of leaves, undergoing two instars before moving back onto more permanent structures of the host plant. By the fall, the adult females that have moved back to the branches .. mate and overwinter.


Damage:
These soft scales are copious honeydew producers, and their sticky excrement commonly coats automobiles, sidewalks, and park benches located under the branches of infested trees.

When parasitic wasps and predators are in short supply, these scales can completely incrust branches - thereby causing stunting and eventual death. This is most common on flowering fruit trees.

Like other scale these insects suck the sap from a variety of ornamental plants and trees, causing stress to the host and a sweet substance, "honeydew"- honeydew coats the surfaces on infested host plants. A fungus called sooty mold colonizes the honeydew and causes the surface to turn black. Infested plants become unsightly and often loose their leaves. Shady new leaf and stem growth is preferred as sites for infestation.