Control product

	Productname: SCS	Scutellista caerulea
	Natural enemy of	Soft-Scales

Origin

:

Africa

Habitus

The mature Scutellista's are blue-black metallic shiny parasites with a humpback. At first sight they resemble more a beetle as a wasp. Size of adults varies greatly, from 1.0-3.0 mm. The males are in general smaller. The adults are not great fliers, but more jumpers and walkers.

Biology

Scutellista cearulea paratises several species of egg-laying soft-scales, like Saissetia oleae, S. coffeae, S. miranda, Parasaissetia nigra. And also waxscales as Ceroplastes rusci. They oviposit in mature scales. The egg hatch in 3-5 days. The larve eats the eggs underneath the female scale. It is as such a predator. If there are no eggs, the larve can also puncture the body of the scale. Larval live takes 1-3 weeks and the pupal-stage also. So generation-time takes 3-7 weeks. But they can also go in a form of diapause as larve. If the parasite is out, it can be recognised by a big exit-hole in the scale. Sometimes there are till four of those exit-holes.

Use

The parasite can be used from spring till autumn against mature soft-scales. The best is a combination of use with parasites of the younger scales-stages as Metaphycus and Coccophagus. Normally it is enough to introduce 2-3 times at a location in one year. But it is important that there are enough mature stages of the soft scale at the moment of introduction.

The use of SCS can be combined with that of : CRS,MHS,EIS

Foto 1

Ceroplastes wax-scale with exit-hole of SCS

Foto 2

SCS tests Saissetia miranda scale

Foto 3

Larve of SCS in Saissetia