8 CROP PEST COMMISSION OF 



-scale had been sent to New Jersey in 1886 or 1887 with a ship- 

 ment of Kelsey plums from the San Jose locality in California.* 

 From their infestation in 1886 or 1887, until the agitation of 

 1893 and '94, the two New Jersey nurseries mentioned had been 

 steadily shipping nursery stock to various parts of the United 

 States, and with many of the shipments the scale went also. The 

 result was that many nurseries, in a number of different States, 

 became infested, and from these as new centers of infestation, the 

 spread of the insect to orchards was rapid. At the present 

 time nearly every fruit-growing section of any importance is 

 more or less infested by this pest, and a careful study of almost 

 any outbreak makes it possible to trace the insect back, indi- 

 rectly, to the 1886 (or 1887?) shipment from California to Xew 

 Jersey. 



In Louisiana, the pest is known to occur in over a dozen 

 localities, some of them widely separated, and when a careful 

 survey and inspection of the various orchard sections of the State 

 has been made, no doubt many more localities will be added to the 

 list. 



What the San Jose Scale Is. 



The San Jose scale is a very small insect belonging to the 

 Border known as Hemiptera, or true bugs. While not by any 

 means microscopic in size, the individual insects are sufficiently 

 small to escape the notice of persons not accustomed to looking 

 for scale-insects. 



The females, during their entire existence (with the ex- 

 ception of a few hours following birth), and the males from 

 the larval stage to maturity, are protected beneath a scale-like 

 covering consisting in part of secretions from the body of the 

 insect, and in part of shed or molted skins cast off by the insect 

 at different periods in its development. The San Jose scale is a 

 sucking insect and feeds by inserting its long, thread-like beak 

 through the bark into the sapwood of the plant upon which it is 

 located. 



The adult female scale is, roughly speaking, about the size 

 of a pin-head and is of a dark grayish color. The scale is nearly 

 round and has near its center a pronounced "nipple" or eleva- 



*Bul. No. 3, n. series, Div. of Entomology, p. 15. 



