By Clint Thompson
Peach producers need to be proactive in guarding against San Jose scale, an annual pest that becomes a problem once temperatures start to warm up.
“Once the insect gets out of control, it’s really hard to bring the populations back down. We just have a great environment for San Jose scale,” said Brett Blaauw, assistant professor at the University of Georgia (UGA) College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. He discussed the insect further in an interview with AgNet Media.
“San Jose scale unfortunately is a year-long issue. However, during the winter, they do go dormant. But as we start to warm up, so do they. Once they get over 51 degrees (Fahrenheit) they start to wake up and start to develop and mature,” Blaauw said. “They overwinter as immatures, and then as it warms up, they start to age. They grow up and in the next couple of months, they will become adults. The males will emerge in the next few weeks and then will seek out the females. They will mate and then later this spring the crawlers will emerge to start the cycle over again.”
Blaauw said the insect will complete 3 to 4 generations every year. The time is now for growers to protect the trees.
“Right now, there’s not much activity going on, but that means it’s also a good time to manage for them. As the trees are mostly dormant and the scale are mostly dormant, we can now apply horticultural oil to smother them on the trees,” he said. “Right now, we usually recommend about 1.5% to 2% oil application at about 150 to 200 gallons per acre. That helps to really smother the scale on the tree. You get good coverage and hopefully good control.”