Plant Doctor Archive

Spots on bromeliads

Question SOME of my bromeliads have what look like scale on them, but it’s only on the upper surface of the leaves.

Answer  THE spots on your sample certainly did resemble scale, but as they were only on the upper surface and there was no sign of young scales I had them checked out at HortResearch. It turns out they are the empty egg sacs of a predatory mite, probably a species of Anystis, which are known as whirlygig mites. They are a good bug to have in the garden as they hunt down and eat some mites which are plant pests.

If you scrape off the empty egg sacs you’ll find there’s a pale spot underneath where light hasn’t been getting through to the leaf surface, but given time that should colour up as chlorophyll returns and photosynthesis becomes active again.

Weekend Gardener, Issue 179, 2005, Page 30