Azalea Bark Scale

Azalea bark scale is an insect pest found on azaleas and rhododendrons.  It is similar to soft scales, as it sucks carbohydrates directly from the plant and produces a lot of honey dew, but is actually seperate from soft scales, and is known as a felty scale.

While we usually treat scale insects during their early life stages (crawler stage), fall is a good time to treat with horticultural oil.  Horticultural oil has little effect on beneficial insects and has a very low residual in the landscape.