Scouting

Poison hemlock overwintering rosettes are already coming back to life. Now is an easy time to look for established poison hemlock plants because they are going to be greener than most any other plants that are not growing.

Winter Solstice, the first day of winter seems like an unusual time to be outside looking for insects. However, it is an excellent time to scout for both Soft Scale and Armored Scale. With the leaves off trees and shrubs, it is easy to find plants with signs of scale damage and scale.

Scouting for scale in the Winter is great use of your time. 

Scale comes in many shapes, sizes and varieties. Last year we saw Oyster Shell, Calico, Juniper, Greedy, Bamboo, Fletcher, Japanese maple, Pine Needle, Brown, Putnam, Euonymus and Magnolia Scale.

Scale is sometimes hard to see when a plant is in full foliage. But in the winter with no leaves on trees and shrubs, except evergreen, scale are easier to see.

Scouting scale in the winter makes sense because there is less to care for outside in the landscape. The following pictures are Scale images on the...