You could add horticultural oil to your current schedule. That should help a lot. Blue conifers will temporarily lose their color, fyi. A good time is now and again in the spring on a cool morning or a cool evening as the leaves and buds are expanding. Then watch for any activity and as soon as you see anything, repeat the horticultural oil, again, only during cool temperatures (I'd stick with a systemic in unison with horticultural oil.

Dax

how do you tell a dead scale from a live scale ....???

i dont understand how a systemic.. properly applied.. is not complete in the kill ... is your timing correct ...

how many plants we talking about??? what plants.. more info please ...

ken

As an example I had a low value mugo with a heavy infestation that i was not looking after. I gave it a heavy dose of merit foliar applied and it took a long time to be able to see the difference in the scale, but after probably a month they finally started to turn a darker color. It appeared to have worked, but now I see new fresh ones, that are still white and healthy in appearance. I reapplied merit(Generic) about 2 weeks ago, but it rained about 24 hours latter. Could that have reduced its effectiveness. If I got a good dose into that mugo the first time where did the reinfestation come from. It was no where near as bad as the initial problems but pine scale seems to really explode if you do not stay on top of it. This particular pine was completely by itself, so I do not believe the scale migrated from other plants. Perhaps this scale has more potential to move around than I am aware of. I see ants that are really attracted to the brown soft scale I had and they farmed that, they do not seem to have as much interest in the pine needle scale that I can see. Can ants import the scale like they do with aphids, or do they just take advantage of the scale being on the plant. How far can a pine needle scale crawler move to lay eggs to create a new infestation. I would like more information about the crawlers stage, but have not had good visual cues as to when that is actively happening. As I understand it the oils and less potent chemicals work on the crawlers, not so much, or at all on the established scale.

have you tried bayer systemic .. link below

i have applied one application.. on 4 different pines.. with total success ..... no need for oils then ...

since it is a 12 month formula .. no need to find the right time with those crawlers .... not sue if late fall is proper time.. CALL THEM if you think you may want to do it immediately ....

i dont understand why you are going the foliar route ...

now.. why all this scale on all your pines .... do you think its personal????

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: it has never failed

Most of my problems come in on plants from other locations, and to some degree might sneak in on scion wood as I try to aquire new varieties other peoples collections. It has taken me a bit of time to see the problems in the past but now that i understand potential problems I will keep a better eye out on new plant material coming in. Also, in this area our season is longer than many, and scale might have more reproductive cycles to build up in a single season.

I was spraying because I have about 800 square feet of containerized pines. If I had a spray stake system I could inject it through that, but I hand water everything right now. I also have heard some things from my extension agent about water table contamination from some systemics, and my well is close by. I did speak to a chemical Rep. about a root drench, and he mentioned all these issues with controling moisture in the root zone for 10 days to insure proper uptake by the plant in a bark media. Since i have no control over rainfall I was concerned much of the chemical would get wasted if it rained hard after an application.

The bayer product specifies that it suppresses armored scale. I am not sure what that means exactly since it implies it kills everything else. I do not know if pine needle scale is considered an armored scale or not. The chemical I used has the same active ingredient as the Bayer product. I guees if I have a bad problem on certain plants i could root drench those for added protection in a covered location. I was trying to treat the whole batch since pine needle scale seems to lurk in the undergrowth and difficult to see areas before its population really takes off.

I now understand your rational behind foliar application of this material, which as Ken points out, and as you already know, is much more suited to soil drench. I think the last bit of your immediately prior post is what you will probably end up wanting to do. And yes, PNS is an armored scale. Just take your best shot, based on weather forecasts, as far as impending rainfall. The imidacloprid-based insecticides are really one of the big guns for such issues. Next summer, you may wish to watch for the crawler stage of these guys and do another foliar spray. If your timing were to be right on, you could even use soap for this application, or a mix of insecticidal soap and light hort. oil.

Best o'luck........+oM

since you have 500 pots.. have you contacted the county Ag or extension office .. and ask for their help ????

ken