In many cases, the crawlers were still under the white waxy covering of the female scale. Earlier in the week, pine needle scale eggs had not hatched in Lebanon county or York county. Growers should be scouting in their own plantations and making applications when the crawlers are present. These flattened red crawlers resemble paprika on the needles. Use a hand lens or tap the branches over a white surface to detect the crawlers.
Crawlers are the only mobile stage of the scale insect.
They do not feed and are also the only stage that is not protected by a waxy covering. Crawlers must settle and begin to feed within 24 hours of emerging from the egg, or they will die. To take advantage of this period of vulnerability, most control measures for scale insects are directed at the crawler stage. However, since eggs do not all hatch at the same time then a second spray may be needed 7-10 days after the first application in order to have optimum control. Pine needle scale has two generations a year, but the first generation appears to be the most synchronized and therefore the easiest to control.