ARS Expert Fights Scaly Invaders

Scale insects are among the nation’s most destructive pests, going undetected until they’ve caused substantial damage. The group of insects devastates fruit and nut trees, woody ornamentals, forest vegetation, greenhouse plants and houseplants.

But Douglass Miller, an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) entomologist, is on a mission to keep them out of the United States. Based at the ARS Systematic Entomology Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., Miller is a scale insect expert.

According to Miller, the national cost of control efforts and damage repair related to insects reaches up to $500 million annually. At least 1,000 species can already be found in the United States – 253 of which are invasive.

Miller has monitored scales for ARS for 34 years. He and fellow ARS entomologist Gary Miller developed another tool for combating scales – the first known full inventory of them. The inventory is part of ScaleNet, an ARS-run online database that allows users to gather information about scales. Click here to access ScaleNet.