The scale do not take well to cold, so only survive winters where the plants are above freezing. Additionally, when the plant is dormant, and there is no sap flow, there is little for them to feed on, so they tend to die off. They are tended and farmed by ants, who consume their by-products. Controlling ants, goes a long way to controlling scale, as well as aphids, mealy bugs and a host of other critters.

On a mature tree, they can usually be hosed off with some high pressure water, and an organic solution to the problem. They are particularly fond of citrus, as well, in part because they are evergreen and provide a source of food all year long.

They do look like scale.  This came up in another tread recently:
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/spray-6118813
    FYI, I received two trees in December that ended up being pretty heavily infested with scale.  I ended up using a combination of horitcultural oil mixed with malathion to combat both the stationary scales and any mobile "crawlies" that may have been around.  The malathion and horticultural oil (ingredients: ~99%mineral oil and ~1% surfactants) were both from HD.  Both were intended to be diluted down to various concentrations depending on the problem being addressed.
  I was not able to use high pressure water, but I started out with the other "organic" solution of picking them off by hand.  I brought the trees outside, squirted them down with the oil/malathion mixture using a spray bottle, and let them sit out for a few hours to dry.  (Temps were in the mid 40's).
  It seems to have made a big difference.  The trees had been covered here and there with sticky sap, which is mostly not the case anymore.  (This may be in part due to the treatment, or it may be in part due to the tree going into dormancy, as Jon alluded to.)  There were initially some fresh drops (e.g. due to fresh puncture wounds), but they've mostly closed/dried up.  I've come across some scales that seem to be dried and flake off easily, but there are a few that still seem "fresh" -- so I think I have to treat the trees again on some warm day this January.  (It is my understanding that this is not unexpected -- it's hard to get them all the first time.)
    But, long story short, the treatment seems to have helped.

Jim
P.S.  The woman I got the trees from grew some fig trees in pots on her patio and brought them into her sunroom for the winter.  She did the same with some lemon and orange trees.  I suspect that one of the trees had some scale and they basically spread around to all the trees.

last time i competed.. that was more than 10 years ago.. i was grade 4. i'm inconsistent. on good days, i can pass as grade 2. but one bad days, i can't even finish a tune without choking. i'm a better competition piper than a solo piper. with little bit of pressure and having to carry my own weight, i do better. and with good drum section, i can just ride out the whole set without any issue. have competed with grade 3 band.. have been around with quartet with open pipers.. with kids, it's really hard to keep that up. piping take daily practice.. and the beast requires regimented feed schedule.

Well, I am a great admirer of anyone that can play the pipes.  They are extremely challenging, but oh how I love the sound.  Reminds me of when I was a little girl.  Just love them! 

I found some of these on some cuttings I received. Gave me the hebejebes. I manually removed and gave them an alcohol bath. Hopefully that won't kill the cuttings.

This makes my skin crawl just looking at them.

Scott,
As a general rule I send all my questionable bugs to the insect ID lab at Va Tech. I'm sure you guys up there have a land grant university. If you find --- ah I looked it up -- Cornell is the Uni that has an insect ID lab and extension folks. If you get stuck on a bug and don't get the needed help here just go on Cornell's website and look up how to submit bugs or pictures of bugs. As I still haven't figured out how to add a link I'm not including one but I found the right page in 3 clicks. start with entomology.cornell.edu then insect ID lab -- you'll get there.

Greetings all,

since i live just a few miles away from the US Dept of Agriculture's Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, I thought I would include this link for their insect identification service. They have some very helpful and knowledgeable folks that are more than happy to assist.

try this link. http://www.ars.usda.gov/Main/docs.htm?docid=9353

Here's the Introduction/Overview:

The Systematic Entomology Laboratory (SEL) routinely provides specimen identification assistance as a free service to both governmental and private entities, including federal research and regulatory agencies, state departments of health and agriculure, university researchers, and private citizens. This service is coordinated by SEL's Communications & Taxonomic Services Unit (CTSU) and relies on the expertise of SEL scientists and collaborating specialists. CTSU maintains a relational database allowing for the efficient management of identification assignments. Upon completion, CTSU is responsible for reporting identifications to the submitter and returning specimens when requested.