Spray with Windex / Formula 409 while the plant's in the shade. Let sit for 10-15 minutes. Then blast the plant with the hose - the scale should wash off. Then keep the plant in the shade for a day.

I've had some look using Imidacloprid as a systemic against scales and mealies. It's not perfect, but it can help quite a bit.

(One time I had a Magnolia get infested with... Magnolia scales, or whatever, which are about the size of a dime and ooze some sort of red fluid which may or may not be blood when you try to scrape them off. At the time I didn't have any proper bug spray and I couldn't spray them off because the magnolia in question was nowhere near a hose, so I just blasted them with spray-on Crisco, assuming it'd work on the smother-them-to-death principle. Unfortunately, it was butter flavored Crisco, and while it DID kill the scales, I ended up with a huge mess of giant scale insects, all slowly melting and oozing blood -- and smelling just like freshly baked cookies.

Yeah.)

LOL....I am going to dream about this now.

Cactusmcharris is it the ammonia in the Windex that dislodges/kills the scale? I'm wondering if you could use plain soapy ammonia?

I too am now picturing the butter flavored dying scale. Yuck!

Windex is basically just ammonia with blue coloring. Vodka works, too, (but not on windows).

Gawd, this was a fun post. Why did it have to end so abruptly?
Love the scale remedies.

If you use Vodka, do the surviving ones wake up and cant find their way home in the morning? Had to ask :)