An infestation of scale

Yesterday I discovered that the pigface plant in my garden is covered in little white fluffy bits that on closer inspection turned out to be a cottony cushion scale species, Pulvinaria I think, in the Coccidae family. I don't think it's the famous one that devastated the Californian fruit industry years ago because this one has very pale blue eggs and that one has red eggs. But then, "I know nuzzing" :) Those little caps have me intrigued. Does each mother scale make her own cap? They look like tiny leaves.

Now, what do I do about scale on my plant? Apparently ladybirds like them so I might just keep my eyes on it.

Scaling the heights

Two years ago much of the Brisbane Ranges was burnt, so the aim of the Field Nats Club excursion yesterday was to see how vegetation was recovering. Most of the eucalypts in the area that copped the 'hot and fierce' part of the fire have epicormic regrowth, whereas those in the 'cooler' fire areas were relatively undamaged. The insects are having a great time - there is hardly a leaf in the whole park that hasn't been nibbled. (Maybe I'm exaggerating, because we only visited a tiny section.)

The meat ants were climbing into the regrowth to get to the substance exuded by the scale insects.

A cottony cushion

The other day I was resting one hand on the ground while taking a photo and a viscious bull ant got me and wouldn't let go! My little finger was inflamed and itchy for several days and I was asked if I'd applied bracken. No, I hadn't but I should have, because what I was photographing was on a bracken stem.

A while ago my daughter was stung by a bull ant and an uncle suggested the bush remedy - break off a frond of bracken and apply the bracken 'juice' to the site of the bite. It worked, in that the crying stopped. Was it mind over matter or does it really work?

The bull ant bit me while I was having a close look at a Cottony Cushion Scale Icerya purchasi on the stem of a bracken. (I didn't identify the bull ant, but it was big, very big. In fact the more I think about it, it was huge.) But I did identify the scale. The mother scale is at the top of the object and apparently up to 1000 red eggs are laid into the sac below. They can be clearly seen in the photo. Some ants - don't know whether they were the type that bit me - were feeding on the mould and for a while I wondered if they were eating the eggs, but I read that the scale insects secrete a lot of honeydew which attracts the ants. Possibly it is a form of defence for the scale. And I don't know why the scale was on bracken because their normal habitat is a wattle.