Wax and barnacle scale insects on Ligustrum

Here are a couple of shots of some of the scale insects (Ceroplastes spp) that are infesting the Ligustrum (Privet) hedges outside the office building in which I toil.

From what I've been able to find, the ones on the leaf are wax scale insects (C. floridensis). The "big" ones are the adults, and are less than 1mm in diameter. The little ones are the nymphs. Tiny little goobers.

The ones on the twig are barnacle scale insects (C. cirripediformis (I think)) and are right around two millimeters.

These were taken with my 100-300 at 105mm, with 7x of stacked close-up adapter lenses screwed on the front. ISO100, f/32 in Av mode, on my little Bogen table-top tripod (I'd forgotten that it has a ballhead - pretty handy!), using the good-ol' Sun for lighting (it was a bit before 3pm yesterday). No processing except for resizing. I started out with my 50/f1.4, but there was noplace to stabilize the tripod (these hedges are in a planter that's a bit over 4 feet tall, with a wide wall). 105mm allowed me to get the whole leaf in the image. Anything over about 200mm resulted in some amazing reflective flare (whatever it's called) - light bouncing between the stacked lenses. A hood made no difference - the shiny leaf surfaces gave enough light to wipe out the image. Pretty interesting.

Anyway, I thought these were kinda cool.

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Nice shots and cool information, I would have thought that was some type of mold. Thanks for sharing!

cool and very informative...........​. the little nymphs look like they are lined up right along the veins of the leaf.... I assume they are sucking the sap right out of there?

Glen, thanks for the shots and info. I was wondering what they were. Do they move at all? The ones that I saw seem to stay there forever........

When I first saw them, I thought they were a type of lichen. They really are tiny! From what I've read, they attach themselves with what sounds like a mosquito-like sucker/proboscis thing, and live on the sap of the plant. I haven't seen more than five or six adults on a single leaf, so I have to assume that the juveniles will eventually migrate to someplace else or die out. Once they establish themselves, they excrete the waxy stuff to protect themselves and lose the ability to move - their legs wither completely away. I popped a couple of adults off of a leaf, but they're too small to see any details on the underside without some sort of microscope. Once they've covered themselves, they're essentially impervious to insecticides, and apparently don't have any predators. A big infestation of them can kill a plant; about the only way to get rid of them is with a systemic insecticide. I thought they were pretty neat, and was quite pleased with the shots. Thanks for your comments!

Nice shots Glen, it is neat how we begin to notice the small things around us. Well done.