"Finally, practicing good hygiene in your plant care will also reduce the chances of a scale infestation," Omelchenko advises. "Regularly wipe the dust off the foliage of your houseplants, and take ...

Fortunately for most gardeners, psyllids are very picky about what kind of plant they attack; they are “host-specific,” ...

For scale insects, their waste is in the form of a sticky excretion called “honeydew” that can quickly build up on leaves. Aphids, another common type of sap-feeding insect, also excretes ...

The adult insects are so well armored that the spray won’t affect them. “To treat for magnolia scale, you have to wait for a more vulnerable time in their life cycle,” she said.

Are your trees dripping a sticky goo? The reason is that trees are often infested with aphids, scale or other insects that ...

There are two types of scale insects, soft scales and armored scales. All scale insects have “piercing sucking” mouthparts that remove sap from their hosts. Soft scales are usually larger than the ...

Bernalillo County Horticulture Agent Joseph Delgado says another common bug the program sees is a tiny, armored scale insect. “A lot of people have pine trees in their yards,” said Delgado.

If you find a scale infestation in your home landscape, try to select the least drastic measure first. This will limit harm to the populations of native pollinators and beneficial insects.

Spring beauty is fleeting, and so is the opportunity to stop scale insects that live on the bark of magnolia trees and suck their sap. “With scale insects, timing is everything,” said Sharon ...