LeftHandLuke
Mame
This morning while working on a chokeberry that I’ve been training for about a year I noticed the unmistakable signs of [duh-duh-duuuuuuh!!] honeydew on one of the leaves. So I look immediately above that spot and there’s one of those little whitish critters trying to look inconspicuous. Oh no you don’t, says I, and squished the bastard. I didn’t find any others but will continue my vigilance to be sure! My question is… what was that? It wasn’t the normal type of scale, because the scale bastards (when feeding) don’t move, of course. This guy, on the other hand, kept trying to hide. When he spots you, he dodges ‘round to the other side of the branch, and he’s pretty quick about it. I’ve seen a few of his ilk but this was the first time there was evidence of assault. Was it a mealybug? Are they that fast? It seems to me that they’d be pretty sluggish what with filling their guts with tree sap. Or was it an actual predator of those little sapsuckers? I’ve heard of mealybug killers that look just like them, so I hope I didn’t kill a good guy. Any thoughts? I’m almost certain others have seen this bug… the hiding from you by dodging around the branch is unmistakeable. Here's a pic of my chokeberry that's completely useless, of course, but it's at least something visual!