How many plants? Can you take them outside to spray, let them dry, bring them back. If you can do that I would suggest powdered orthene. Not the oil. This is a systemic that also kills on contact. I spray quarterly as a precaution or sooner if there is an issue. You may have ants. Ants can "farm" scale. They move them around like a bee keeper moves hives. Controlling ants sometimes answers the scale issue. Good luck...

No ants. I went with the neem because I cant find orthene in my area. I have about 20 orchids, about 20 ferns and 10 other plants. Been taking everything but the orchids outside once a week to spray the neem. Big pain in the butt! Orchids are totally separate from the other plants so i hoped they are isolated enough. I guess the #%* crawlers went to them anyway. So guys, is it safe for the humans and my cats to use the Bayer product inside? The cats dont have access to the plant room but I dont know if the product would contaminate the air we breathe?

The Bayer products are a shotgun approach. They usually have 3 or 4 chemicals for multiple types of pests. I prefer to keep the amount of poisons to a minimum. I like the idea of using one poison targeted towards the problem. The orthene poison will mean only one application as it persists in the plant.
I have used a bayer product for mites as I needed an answer NOW. Mite poison requires a follow up because mites are killed on contact only and there will be eggs hatching a week later. So on the follow up I found and used the same mite poison without all the other stuff.

Good luck

SM i googled Orthene again and this time found it online. Apparently there are a couple of them. Must have missed them when i searched before. One is for fire ants and the other one is called orthene turf, tree and ornamental 97. It says active ingredient is acephate 97.4%. Is the second one that you use? And thx for your help because if I cant get rid of the scale I'm about ready to give up on my plants altogether. I already had to discard 3 of my favorite ferns because of them. It breaks my heart.

SM one of the reasons the scale has spread in my plantroom is because i would rather not use poisons. So i tried the hand-picking approack and the alcohol approach and a couple of other approaches. Needless to say scale being what it is nothing worked.and even though I checked the plants almost daily it seems as if some went from clean to infested in no time. I still hand-pick my staghorn because it doesnt take sny of these treatments well. I guess i need to go to the fern forum and see if i csn do orthene on it.

Bea, check this thread out: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hoya/msg0823503130218.html. I had similar questions there, about systemic insecticides indoors. The short executive version is: I bought and used this (http://www.homedepot.com/p/Compare-N-Save-32-oz-Systemic-Tree-and-Shrub-Insect-Drench-75346/203112613) and do not regret it. I applied it back in August, once, to all plants at the same time, and in the more than two months since, I have not seen a single pest on my plants. I intend to repeat these treatments annually or more often if I see new pests.

Note that Bayer has two insecticide formulas, with 1 and 2 active ingredients (not 3 or 4 as said above). This is a generic analog of one of those, with exactly the same active ingredient, but cheaper. You apply it to your soil by watering, so there is nothing to be spread to other rooms where your cats are.

I've never used Orthene and can't speak about it.

Thanks for your help shavedmonkey and greentoe. We'll see how it goes.

Greentoe I should have waited to say thanks after i read your systemic thread rather than before. Very informative. Interesting comments about washing off the soap. I thought the same thing because the neem solution I've been using also contains soap. So that's soap and oil. I am concerned as to how many of these applications would it take to clog up my plants' pores. But one of my polypodies looks so pretty and shiny after the treatment!

I have used Bayer Advanced Rose and Flower Systemic as a last chance approach. I do not like using poisons at all but did resort to the Bayer for one or two plants. The Bayer must contain the chemical Imidacloprid (?), and is granular systemic. It works very well and quickly and will get rid of scale and mites.

I did use it indoors when I lived in NY and grew inside the house. I only used it on affected plants and watered them well outside, even during winter. We had cats and dogs and grandkids so I was careful keeping the affected plants away from them.

Sometimes you need to weigh the worth of the plant infected and how important it is to you. I have thrown out scale infected plants when non-poison didn't work. The plants I treated with Bayer were plants I did not want to lose and had sentimental value to me.

Jane

Hi Jane,

How much of the granular Bayer for roses did you use per plant? Please let me know. Thanks

I don't measure. I just sprinkle a little on the surface and water in. Make sure you sprinkle all the way around the pot so all the roots take it up. Never had a problem and frankly, I don't think you can over do it.

Jane