Cottony cushion scale, Icerya purchasi, is an easy pest to spot. Cottony cushion scale can infest a number of woody ornamentals and some crops.
While the pest themselves are orangish brown to red throughout their life stages, attached to the females are elongated, white cottony egg sacs. Each sac contains 600 to 800 red eggs. The egg filled sac may become two to three times as long as the body of the female. Combined the length can reach close to ½ an inch.
After the eggs hatch into crawlers, they settle along leaf veins and begin to produce the white cottony secretion they are known for. Each time they increase in size, they shed their outer skin leaving it behind before starting the process over.
To learn more about these pests and how to manage them, please see UC ANR’s Cottony Cushion Scale Pest Note.
Topics include:
- Identification and life cycle
- Damage
- Management
Commercial growers can find pest resources by crop on this page of the UC IPM Online website.
Additional information can be found in the related publication, Stages of the Cottony Cushion Scale and its Natural Enemy, the Vedalia Beetle (Rodolia cardinalis).
