Scales on the Blueberry Bushes...

We recently moved our three year old blue berry bushes from the back yard to the front yard.  While moving one of the bushes we noticed these reddish brown bumps on its leaves and branches.  Todd said it looked like Scale... Scale!?!  "Whats Scale?".. I thought to myself.  I took some time to do a little research and found out that scale is a pest ... its a bug that forms a hard shell around its self a attaches its self on to the leaves and branches of a plant.  The mother then lays eggs, when the eggs hatch they eat the mom, and brake out of the shell to form new shells of their own.  While attached on the plant they basically suck nutrients from the plant.  A common indicator that your plant may have Scale are ants.  The Scale are known to secrete a sweet liquid that ants seem to love.. and sure enough the bush was covered in ants.

Heres a photo I took of one of the branches of my poor blueberry bush.  I also found out through research that the only was to get rid and these nasties is by wiping your plant down with rubbing alcohol and a Q tip or round cotton swab.  This was a bit much for me to stomach so I ended up pruning the shit out of the bush... updates will come.