ARMORED-20 Three Digit Scale

Many armored scales are serious pests of ornamental shrubs, trees, groundcovers, and turfgrasses in South Carolina. Almost 40% of the Clemson Plant Problem Clinic sample submissions for home landscapes during 2012 and 2013 were scale insect pests, and of these, almost 90% of the species were the more difficult to control armored scales. Twenty-four different armored scales were identified on residential landscape plants. As winters have become warmer in recent years, additional insect pests may have extended their range more northward into South Carolina from Florida and coastal Georgia. More armored scale samples on ornamentals were submitted from the coastal areas of South Carolina than from the rest of the state, probably due to the milder winter weather there (see Table 1 for scale insects identified).