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Unintended Consequences and Accidental Introductions From the last ice age up to the time of Spanish settlement, the number of species in Florida remained relatively constant. However, when the Spanish arrived, new organisms from disease- causing microbes to feral hogs became established, and over the next 500 years humans con- tinued to introduce new species. Some introductions have had enormous impacts, others have had none. Some introductions are accidental, and some have had unintended consequences. From fleas to , rabies to rodents and, more recently, melaleuca and the lobate lac scale, hundreds of species have been introduced in the last five centuries. We struggle to maintain fragments of something we call the real Florida, but it is a difficult battle. Melaleuca has overtaken thousand of acres of natural areas, but with an aggressive approach we might win that battle. The lobate lac scale is another alarming invasive that is killing trees and shrubs across South Florida. This tiny does not discriminate between natural vegetation, land- scaped shrubs, or commercial fruit trees. If left unchecked, the effects of lobate lac scale, like those of melaleuca, will ripple across ecosystems and compromise habitat quality for all wildlife.

Lobate Lac Scale and Melaleuca: A Devastating Insect Aided by an Invasive Tree

For more information on melaleuca and its management, visit the TAME Melaleuca Web site http://tame.ifas.ufl.edu

Project Coordinator: Cressida Silvers USDA-ARS Invasive Plant Research Laboratory Ft. Lauderdale, FL (954) 475-0541

USDA-ARS is an equal opportunity employer. February 2004 http://tame.ifas.ufl.edu Lobate2 2/6/04 3:47 PM Page 2

aided by strong winds, much of their long-distance complex of and diseases that normally The Invader Identification of Lobate Lac Scale dispersal results from the actions of people, such controls their numbers. Like a hurricane in slow motion, the lobate lac Scientific name: Paratachardina lobata lobata as when a plant owner moves an infested plant Biological control involves determining what organ- scale is spreading across South Florida and The best known member of the lac scale family from one location to another. You can help by not isms attack the pest in its native range, and then destroying a variety of trees and shrubs in its () is the true lac scale of Asia, and while transporting any plants or plant material that you releasing these agents into the non-native range. wake. It congregates in large numbers and cloaks the true lac scale has been used since ancient suspect of harboring lobate lac scale. Nurseries For the lobate lac scale in Asia, some natural ene- itself and its victims in black sooty mold. No larger times to produce , the lobate lac scale has infested with lobate lac scale are quarantined until mies are tiny non-stinging . The wasps has than a pin- no commercial value. Lobate lac scales are dark they are free of the pest. have a very narrow diet, but before these natural head, this brown but often enemies can be insect is appear dull black Double Trouble: Melaleuca and the used in Florida, poised to due to a covering Lobate Lac Scale research must create big of sooty mold. Melaleuca (MEL-ah-LUKE-ah) is an invasive weed confirm that they trouble – This mold also that spreads into valuable wetlands and other nat- eat nothing but the perhaps the grows on the ural areas in Florida. It easily outcompetes native lobate lac scale. most signifi- leaves of infested vegetation and severely diminishes wildlife habitat Researchers with cant trouble and nearby unin- quality. Melaleuca has infested hundreds of thou- the USDA yet for gar- fested plants, sands of acres and has cost millions of dollars in Agricultural dens and feeding on the control efforts. It is on the Federal Noxious Weed Research Service, natural Lobate lac scales are tiny, even next to the sugary waste List and is illegal to possess in Florida. the University of areas in lead in a mechanical pencil, yet they lead to (honeydew) Furthermore, melaleuca serves as a good host for Florida, and the death in trees that are highly susceptible to South excreted by the the lobate lac scale. Melaleuca trees infested with Florida Depart- this pest. Florida. Bumps on the stems and sooty mold lobate lac scale. on the leaves of this wax myrtle the lobate lac scale can act as a breeding ground ment of Agriculture The lobate lac scale is a relatively new insect pest Measuring about indicate a lobate lac scale infestation. where large numbers of larvae are free to spread and Consumer in Florida, but it already has an enormous pres- 1/16 inch across, onto valued landscape and native plants. Services are ence. Native to India and Sri Lanka, it was first the adult lobate lac scale is visible to the naked working with col- Melaleuca and other invasive weeds should be found in Broward County in 1999 and some of the eye, and looks like a tiny, four-lobed bump of bark. leagues in India removed in order to protect Florida’s natural areas heaviest infestations remain in that county. By These hardshelled adults are usually surrounded and to and to help avoid or control lobate lac scale 2002, it had spread north to Lake Worth, south to by dozens of other acquire and study infestations. Contact your county’s Cooperative Homestead, and west into the Everglades. Lobate such bumps. They Lobate lac scale usually infests twigs these natural Extension office for guidance on the removal of lac scale also occurs in the Bahamas, where a are found primarily and small branches that are less enemies. melaleuca. recent survey found that two-thirds of plant species on thin woody than 3/4 inch in diameter. It has not been observed on foliage. examined were infested with lobate lac scale. This branches less than Residents wishing invasive pest has been found on over 200 species 1 inch in diameter. The Treatment to treat lobate lac scale infestations may contact their county’s in Florida. Many important plants are highly sus- Adults are immobile, Because lobate lac scale is a relatively new pest, Cooperative Extension office (see ceptible, including native species such as wax myr- but the -colored little research about it has been published. Even http://extension.ifas.ufl.edu) for more guidance tle, coco plum, red bay, wild coffee, and strangler larvae are not; it is so, certain are effective in controlling (including publication #EENY-276). The state has fig, and commercially important species such as at this stage of their lobate lac scale on ficus trees but are not currently also posted three lobate lac scale circulars online mango, ficus, lychee, and star-fruit. This wide- life cycle that infes- legal to use on most fruit trees. Horticultural oils at spread choice of hosts is what makes lobate lac tations spread. The are generally effective on scale insects, and work scale particularly troubling. Evidence of their sap- is underway to determine their effectiveness larvae, sometimes http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/IN471, sucking destruction includes blackened leaves and called crawlers, against lobate lac scale. branches, branch dieback, and for susceptible Wax myrtles are perhaps the most often move or fall to The best long-term solution for controlling the http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/orn/scales/lobate_lac.htm, species of shrubs and trees, death. susceptible of all trees to lobate new sites on their lobate lac scale is using its natural enemies – a http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/~pi/enpp/ento/parat- lac scale. Unfortunately, wax myr- host plants or concept known as biological control. When plants tles are one of the most important nearby plants. While achardina.html. berry-producing trees for birds in or animals are introduced beyond their natural South Florida. their spread is often range, they are often without the associated