Hi. This is about my hydrangeas. A few days ago, I cut off the dried flowers from last year's bloom, as well as some selective pruning. Yes, I know it is tricky to prune hydrangeas, but I did my best. I waited until now to see what was generating leaves/growth and what wasn't. I noticed my hydrangeas did not look that great and observed a white scale on the stalks. Today, I looked closer and the scale is on the leaves. These bugs seem to be drawn to new leaf growth, eventually sucking the life out of those leaves, which is why the bushes don't look as great as they have in the past. Today, I used my fingers to wipe off the white scale from the leaf's underside. It is sticky. The effort is seek and find / hit or miss to locate the bugs. I thought I am done and then noticed leaves where I missed. Where I saw several white scales on a leaf, I removed the leaf. I looked at the Extnsn Service and I may have Cottony camellia scale. I did read about it, but would appreciate a more straightforward answer as how to treat my situation. Do I monitor for the white scale and wipe it off with my fingers? Or have the bugs left their white "sac" and it is too late. Some sacs are larger than others. These hydrangeas are very old (40-50 y/old) and I expect are also stressed by the 2 year+ drought. I do periodically water them when we have hot spells. Should I just water them more? Attached is photo of the white scale bugs on a leaf plus pdf of 2 photos with some comments. Thanks.