Gardening Question of the Week: Why is My Euonymous Plant Bumpy?

I was visiting a garden recently and the gardener wanted to know why her Euonymous had bumps all over it. I told her she had scale and, like most of us when we hear scale for the first time, she thought it was some type of scaly disease. No, scale are tiny parasitic insects that adhere to plant stems and leaves and can be very difficult to remove. I think most diseases are easier to control than these little insects that sneak onto your plants and reproduce to their heart’s content. Thankfully, treating scale isn’t quite as hard as noticing them before they multiply. Here are some ways of controlling scale on both indoor and outdoor plants.

Photo: © Marie Iannotti (2008) licensed to About.com, Inc.