Pacific Pests & Pathogens - Mini Fact Sheet EditionCitrus snow scale (105)
Pacific Pests & Pathogens - Mini Fact Sheet EditionCitrus snow scale (105)
Summary
- Worldwide distribution. Mostly, citrus, but the Pacific banana is a host. An important pest.
- The scale has tube-like mouthparts, sucking sap from stems. Heavy infestations cause leaf fall and dieback.
- Eggs hatch and “crawlers” walk or spread by wind, settle, feed and produce the protective armour, oyster-shaped in females, white and straight in males. Males become fly-like, without mouthparts, mate and die.
- Natural enemies: ladybird beetles and parasitoid wasps.
- Cultural control: scale-free nursery stock; Gliricidia windbreaks to protect from spread of "crawlers"; adequate nutrition.
- Chemical control: use lime sulphur or wettable sulphur, leaving 30 days if also spraying oils (READ INSTRUCTIONS); alternatively, spot-spray infestations with horticultural oil, white oil, or soap solution (see Fact Sheet no. 56); avoid malathion and synthetic pyrethroids - they will kill natural enemies.
Common Name
Citrus snow scale, white louse scale
Scientific Name
Unaspis citri
AUTHOR Grahame Jackson
1Information from Waterhouse DF, Norris KR (1987) Biological Control Pacific Prospects. Inkata Press; and CABI Plantwise Knowledge Bank. (http://www.plantwise.org/KnowledgeBank/Datasheet.aspx?dsid=55685); and from Buckley CR, Hodges AC (2017) Citrus snow scale. UF/IFAS Extension Service, University of Florida.(http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/orn/scales/citrus_snow_scale.htm). Photo 1 (and Diagram) Gillian Watson, Senior Insect Biosystematist, Plant Pest Diagnostics Branch, California Department of Food & Agriculture, Sacramento, CA, USA.
Produced with support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under project PC/2010/090: Strengthening integrated crop management research in the Pacific Islands in support of sustainable intensification of high-value crop production, implemented by the University of Queensland and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.
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