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How to identify it
- The adult female is small, soft-bodied and rounded to slightly pear-shaped, light pink to dark red, and has no legs.[1][2]
- Curly, shiny white strands of wax form a fluffy, cottony mass that covers the body completely; it is densest around the males in their second stage.[2]
- The eggs are oval, smooth and pinkish with a pearly luster, and the adult male is very small and wingless.[2]
- Look for it on the pale tissue at the base of leaves and fruit stalks, and in small colonies where the date strands join near the center of the bunch.[1]
Look-alikes
| Look-alike | How to tell them apart |
|---|---|
| Pink hibiscus mealybug | Its pink color and waxy filaments can make red date scale look like pink hibiscus mealybug, but red date scale never builds large populations and doesn't produce heavy wax or much honeydew.[1] |
Where it lives
Native to the Middle East and North Africa, it has been carried to other regions on infested date palms. In the United States it is recorded from Arizona, California and Texas, and it occurs in the desert date-growing areas of California.[2][1]
Biology and life cycle
It avoids light, so it settles on the soft white tissue at the leaf bases and, as the fruit stalk lengthens, in the angles between date strands near the center of the bunch.[1]
Some eggs hatch inside the mother and others after they are laid. Females pass through three life stages and males through five, and in the United States there are four generations a year.[2]
Its hosts are palms, above all date palms (Phoenix species, including the date palm, Canary Island date palm and pygmy date palm), plus California fan palm, Syagrus palms and rattan palms; it has also been recorded on eucalyptus and Pandanus.[2]
Predators recorded on it include lady beetles such as Chilocorus and Rhyzobius lophanthae, and the small beetle Cybocephalus californicus.[2]
Damage and signs
Health risk
The sources treat it only as a plant pest; none mentions bites or other risk to people or pets.[1][2]
Control
Prevention
In California date gardens no management is needed for this insect.[1]
Sanitation
Growers commonly cut out the center of each date bunch to improve airflow and fruit size. When that heart is thrown on the ground, the red date scales on it are exposed, dry out and die.[1]
Pesticides
Several insecticide treatments have been tried against this scale, but none is recommended.[2]
Common questions
- What is the pink, cottony stuff at the base of my date palm's fronds?
- Small pink scales wrapped in fluffy white wax on the pale tissue at the base of leaves or fruit stalks are likely red date scale.[1][2]
- Do I need to spray red date scale?
- No. UC IPM says no management is needed in California, and no chemical treatment is recommended for it.[1][2]
Sources
- University of California Statewide IPM Program, “Red Date Scale (UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines: Date).” ipm.ucanr.edu/agriculture/date/red-date-scale/ (accessed 2026-11-09)
- ScaleNet (scale insect database begun at the USDA ARS Systematic Entomology Laboratory), “ScaleNet catalogue: Phoenicococcus marlatti Cockerell.” scalenet.info/catalogue/Phoenicococcus%20marlatti/ (accessed 2026-11-09)
- iNaturalist, “Phoenicococcus marlatti taxon page (order and family).” www.inaturalist.org/taxa/543217 (accessed 2026-11-09)