Hi everyone.

Adam - Good to see another Aussie on this site. White scale is pretty easy to get rid of with any of the low toxic insecticides. Rob Smythe's Canola White Oil Spray is easy to make from every day household products and is effective on all scale insects even the stubborn flyspeck type.
See: http://fcbs.org/articles/canola.htm

If you don't want to go to the trouble of making your own, Defender Maxguard is a reasonably new insecticide in our area which is getting good reviews from brom growers and is reasonably low on the toxic scale. Available from most hardware/nursery ware-houses and most nurseries.

It's not just a systemic spray like many others; it's a contact, residual and systemic insecticide all in one, which controls many insects including all scale.
See: http://www.scottsaustralia.com.au/defender/defender-pest-and-weed-control/defender-maxguard.aspx

Hope this helps

All the best, Nev.

Most contact insecticides don't work on scale because of its waxy coating. They also don't kill eggs to prevent new infections.

I couldn't tell you what brand or product to buy in Australia, but look for something with imidacloprid in it. Here it's in lots of Bayer products that are widely available.

Imidacloprid is a systemtic (meaning it gets in the plant and kills bugs when they bite into it). It's highly effective and one treatment lasts for weeks, meaning it'll kill new scale that hatches after treatments. It's also not toxic to bromeliads and can be applied very easily by foliar spraying. You can also drip a drop or two of the concentrate into the cups for treating individual plants.

I use water, alcohol and Dawn

Thanks for the responses. I did spray with Confifdor (Imidacloprid ) which seems to have helped but will need to reapply.I'll check out Defender Maxguard.

Thanks again,
Adam

The scale might be dead, but it won't just disappear. All that wax will hold it on the plant indefinitely.

After a few weeks or months dead scale will be much easier to remove mechanically, however.

Hi everyone.

Firstly let me expand on what I said previously; the Rob Smythe's Canola White Oil Spray although not a system insecticide kills the scale by smothering it like other white oil products, however unlike other white oil products, it isn't petroleum based and won't harm the bromeliads.

Confidor is available here in Australia and I've used it myself, however now with evidence building up to highlight the harm that imidacloprid could be causing to the world wide bee population, (especially the US and Europe) and as this is the active ingredient in Confidor, many growers have opted for a different insecticide.

You can read the following two articles and make your own judgements.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120405224653.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imidacloprid_effects_on_bees

Defender Max Guard is becoming more popular here because it is supposed to be 100 times less harmful to bees. The active ingredient is 0.05g/L acetamiprid, a powerful insecticide that is very effective at extremely low concentrations and totally different to imidacloprid. It is a "systemic" as well as a "contact" and "residual" insecticide.

As the jury is still out on the cause of the "serious bee problem", I don't expect the backyard brom grower who uses small quantities of Confidor occasionally will decimate the Australian bee population. It's the large agriculturalists who spray entire crops who have to re-think what they should use.

As gosalsk says, "The scale might be dead, but it won't just disappear". Some dead scale will hose off but the more stubborn ones like Brown Scale and Fly Speck Scale need to be manually removed and for this I use a stiff bristle tooth brush.

HDD - I read with interest when you say, "I use water, alcohol and Dawn", could you please explain a bit more as it's always good to know of controls that are effective yet probably harmless to the environment.

All the best, Nev.

Bromeliads don't produce enough nectar or pollen to be a danger to bees, even if imidacloprid were dangerous to bees. Few bugs will try to eat bromeliads so it's a very selective treatment. At worst it will kill them when they try to drink out of the cups. This is really a plus as it kills mosquitos and larvae.

Personally I am very partial to imidacloprid since it's saved me much grief over the years. I wish I had had it in the early '90s when beetles killed many trees at my house.

As I mentioned above I use water, alcohol and dawn if I see an occasional white scale. I use a systemic call Merit on all the broms. It doesnt hurt the frogs and other dwellers in the tanks

Mandurah is mosquito-ville, so maybe the confidor is the way to go. My resident motorbike frogs have moved out of the shade ouse and into the gardn ponds for the summer so it should be safe to reapply now.