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.
