Bug FAQBeech Scale
Cryptococcus fagisuga · Order: Hemiptera · Family: Eriococcidae
Also called: beech bark scale, woolly beech scale
Source: Wikipedia
Adult beech scales are about a millimetre long, elliptical, and covered in a cottony cream wax. Females reproduce without males and lay strings of pale yellow eggs on the bark from midsummer onward. Feeding creates wounds that let Nectria fungi invade, harming the tree.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
They have reddish-brown eyes, no wings, tiny antennae and legs, and many minute wax-secreting glands.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Adults are elliptical and about one millimetre long, covered by a cream-coloured cottony wax.
Source: Wikipedia
Is it a pest in the house?
Feeding wounds let Nectria fungi invade the infested trees.
Source: Wikipedia
How to get rid of it
The ladybird beetle Chilocorus stigma eats the scale but does not reduce its populations enough to control infestations. Severe cold, such as air temperatures of to 37 °C, can kill the scale when it is not protected by snow.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
They colonise beech trees that are at least thirty years old.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Beech scale feeds only on beech trees, sucking sap from the bark’s parenchyma tissue.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
There are no males; females reproduce by parthenogenesis.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 14 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Vermont, New York, New Hampshire, Michigan, Massachusetts, Maine, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: introduced in North America; introduced in United States. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
How can I identify beech scale?
Look for tiny elliptical insects about 1 mm long, covered in a cream-coloured cottony wax, with reddish-brown eyes and no wings.
Source: Wikipedia
How does beech scale reproduce?
Females reproduce without males (parthenogenesis) and lay strings of pale yellow eggs on the bark from midsummer onward.
Source: Wikipedia
What damage does beech scale cause to trees?
Feeding creates small wounds that allow Nectria fungi to infect the bark, harming the tree.
Source: Wikipedia
How can I control beech scale?
Natural predators like the ladybird beetle Chilocorus stigma feed on them, but severe cold temperatures (around to 37 °C) are the most effective way to kill them.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Eriococcidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptococcus_fagisuga
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.