While treating my bouganvillia for loop worms, I noticed a branch with uniformed scales. I can't seem to identifiy them. Any help?
Thank you in advance.
Joel

to ATP, cambrow, I have never seen this - I am sure someone with more knowledge of Bougainvillea will step in here.

Mealy bug scales, looks like. They like the sap of the bougainvillea, I think. You might try scraping them off gently onto something that you can get rid of and then I believe there is a horticultural oil that you can rub on the branch to sort of seal it, seal those places that they've gouged into the bark. I'll have to look up the kind of oil, though, not sure about it.

Welcome to ATP!

Here's what I found about horticultural oils and how to use them:

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/p...

This looks nothing like the scale I'm accustomed to seeing on Ribes and Rosa plants, but if it is scale, I've had good luck eradicating scale with Volck Oil. In a pinch, I've also used Pam cooking spray with equally successful results.

I also thought the pattern is too even for scale but I don't know THAT much about scale....

It looked like that when it got on my Euonymus - (bittersweet might be a common name for it). The truth is I used Vaseline petroleum jelly to get rid of it. Never thought of Pam. Thanks @Zuzu.

Edited because the common name for my Euonymus was winterberry, not bittersweet.

I just looked through a hundred pictures of scale bugs and didn't see any resembling those. We need @JRsbugs here for this one.

Hello!

Katydid eggs, when they hatch the nymphs will possibly be eating other bugs so leave well alone!

http://www.missouribotanicalga...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...

The diet of tettigoniids includes leaves, flowers, bark, and seeds, but many species are exclusively predatory, feeding on other insects, snails or even small vertebrates such as snakes and lizards.

This particular katydid could be the Angularwinged katydid but I can't be certain. A description (with a link to a photo of the eggs) does fit well, but I don't know if there are others which are similar ..

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG...

Janet's right; I'm thinking about all those poor katydids that I destroyed!

I'm still not sure I could tell the difference because I've seen scale look so much like that. Maybe the size is the difference, or the symmetry.

The sort of scale you are probably thinking of Sharon is likely to be the soft bodied ones, they attach their undersides to a leaf or stem like a vacuum and are either flat or helmet shaped. These remind me of pumpkin seeds.

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/fran...

http://www.thenaturalgardener....

At least you might now be able to tell the difference next time you see any.

Not sure, Janet, but I got rid of whatever it was. I doubt there is a severe shortage of katydids anyway, if that's what mine were.

Thanks for the links, next time I'll know.

I knew Janet could do it!!

Great job Janet!! And I learned something new today too.

Thank you all for your quick replies. I believe what I have are Katydid eggs. This forum is great!