Scale insects are important pests of shade trees, and, as many practitioners will tell you, they can be challenging to manage. Their diversity, cosmopolitan dining tastes, and staggering reproductive rates are partly why they have a reputation as being difficult, but by understanding a few key points about scales, you can set the expectations and offer these services with confidence. With 8,000 recognized species, scales are found pretty much everywhere. Most make their living as plant parasites, andcan be found on thousands of different plant species. The scale insects are also very diverse in their appearance. Some are quite large — up to 1/2 inch in diameter — while others are barely visible without magnification.They can have complicated andvaried lifecycles, with at least nine different types of sexual, hermaphroditic, and even parthenogenic reproduction strategies that would take you all day to Google and still never fully understand.
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