Pied Beauty

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

Glory be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise him.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Cottony Cushion Scale

Yuck.


I have Cottony Cushion Scale on my satsuma.  It's not a terrible infestation and for now, I'm not even treating it with anything.  I remove them when I see them (they don't move), or spray them off with a jet of water.

Cottony Cushion Scale are a pest of woody ornamental plants that can do damage by sucking juices out of plant tissue.  The adults also produce a sticky honeydew, with in turn is a host for black sooty mold.  Very unsightly!  You can see them on all sorts of shrub-type plants, including roses, pittosporum, and common trees.  The cottony part is the egg sac of the female.  By the time it looks like these photos, she has stopped moving and is easy to pull off your plants.


To control Cottony Cushion Scale, you can hand-pick them (yuck again!) or use insecticidal soaps or horticultural oils.  Conventional methods of control include systemic insecticides like imidicloprid or contact insectides like Sevin.  Always follow label instructions.

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