The Gloomy Scale 
19 
Fig. 13. Soft maple badly infested with gioomy scaie. 
HOW THE INSECT IS SPREAD 
There are two factors in the spread of this insect: the spread from 
place to place, and the spread from tree to tree. The gloomy scale is so 
generally distributed in eastern North Carolina that the spread from 
place to place is not of so very much importance. However, it seems to 
take place chiefly through the nurseries. Nurserymen try to keep this 
pest in control, but it is of course a rather difficult matter to control 
them absolutely. And a single live insect would soon increase to such 
an extent that the pest would ser ously injure the tree. 
The spread from tree to tree may take place in a number of different 
ways. The active young may crawl from the limb of one tree to the 
limb of another if the limbs interlace. They may be blown from one 
tree to another, as they are very small and light. The young scale may 
