Overseas it is a pest in Asia, South America, Africa and Mediterranean Europe. Despite its name, Chinese wax scale is not thought to be native to China. In New South Wales it has been collected from 59 species of plants, many of them Australian natives. The Chinese wax scale does not kill plants and does not seem to cause a reduction in fruit size or tree yield. The black sooty mould covers the fruit and fruit must be washed before it is marketable.
Washing causes mechanical damage to some varieties and is expensive.
Chinese wax scales do not need to mate to produce viable eggs. After the female scale has fed and matured, it produces several thousand pink eggs, which fill the chamber beneath the wax covering. The female scale dies and the eggs are protected by the wax. Although the adult scale is now dead the wax covering looks the same as when it was alive. At this stage they are not protected by any wax.