aloe mite

Symptoms

Cauliflower-like green or pink galls on leaves and especially on flower stalks, distorted spongy growth, the plant survives but looks grotesque.

Easily confused with

• oleander scale

  How to tell them apart: Aspidiotus nerii (oleander scale) appears as discrete, near-circular tan-to-cream waxy domes about 1-2 mm wide, often with a slightly darker raised spot near the centre, sitting ON TOP of an otherwise normal flat green leaf; you can flick one off with a fingernail and the leaf tissue underneath stays smooth and intact. Eriophyes aloinis (aloe mite) is NOT a thing sitting on the leaf — it is the leaf itself swelling into rough, warty, cauliflower-like galls, typically tinged orange-to-green, concentrated at leaf bases, leaf margins (a bubbly distorted fringe) and the growing point; these growths cannot be removed and the tissue stays permanently deformed even after treatment. Rule of thumb: removable separate bumps on flat tissue = scale; fused tumour-like distorted growth you cannot pick off = aloe mite.