Scale invasion

9 years ago

What are your thoughts on this scale infection. I've seen some sights that recommend tossing the whole tree.

Has anybody had success an completely eradicating scale?

This is my lime tree. It I'm in Southwestern Ontario ,Canada. About an hour drive from Detroit ,Mi. My tree comes inside in the winter and sits in a window. I noticed the scale last year and was able to keep it at by scraping them off as a saw them.

This summer I was a bit busy and wasn't able to clean them off as often. I went through and and scraped off as many as I could today and then gave the tree a heavy dose of neem(not sure of it's effect on scale) I'll also be throwing some D.E around the pots to hopefully stop the ants from farming.

I've also heard of people putting the trees in a garbage bag and spraying raid in the bag. The idea is that the fumes will kill the bugs (only keep it in the bag for an hour or so, and not in the sun. I'm not really sure I want to go the raid route. Obviously all the fruit and blossoms would be pulled off if I did.

Anyway ,here's a pic of some of the leaves with scale on them. Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks

Featured Answer

Silica

9 years ago

Scale is actually quite easy to control. A good thorough spray with a high quality horticultural oil on both the upper and lower surface of the leaves plus the bark. The addition of a teaspoon per gallon of a wetting agent such as tween-20 will also help.

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Comments (11)

Susanne Michigan Zone 5/6
9 years ago
I had scales this spring too. Only way to get rid of them is to be persisstent. I went over every leaf every day and removed them when found. Watched where the ants where going and foind hiding places. It took three months to get rid of scales. Ant decided not a good place for farming and moved on. With only a couple trees in container I would say it can be done.
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johnmerr
9 years ago
Best if you can catch them in the crawlie stage; they are easier to remove/kill. Once they have established their shell, it is harder to kill them; physical removal is good, as are systemic insecticides and Brachonid wasps.
evdesert 9B Indio, CA
9 years ago
Organocide is a great natural product that will get rid of them. It's available at big box hardware stores.

Evan
Sammers510
9 years ago
I managed to get rid of a mild infestation off of 3 trees I got from OGW. I sprayed weekly with a mix of H.O, Neem and Protekt. As well as everyday/every other day inspected the trees and physically removed any scale I could see. I did this for 4 weeks then every other week for another 2. Haven't seen any resurgence for over a month and a half.
myermike_1micha
9 years ago
Best if you treat for them before the trees comes inside..So much easier!
Silica
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Surprising, reading the above posts. In all the years, I have never had to spray a tree with scale for days on end. Normally one good HO spray does the trick, but sometime it might take two sprays. I've always found scale to an easy insect to control.
johnmerr
9 years ago
Silica,

Scale is easily controlled if you have systemic insecticide, or if you have predator wasps, Brachonid being the best... Your scale is likely easily removed because it is already dead from one of the above.
bmelz
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks for all the great advice. I am at least encouraged that the problem can be dealt with instead of having to toss the tree.
Sammers510
9 years ago
Silica, I wish mine was easily controlled. It wasn't a bad infestation either probably a dozen scale per tree at one time. But every week i'd go out and reinspect and there would be a few new scale so I resprayed. I could tell they were new because they were still in their soft stage and not fully grown. But they eventually went away and I hope I don't have to deal with that again.
Susanne Michigan Zone 5/6
9 years ago
in my case it were ants. I swear they did hide some where I could not find them and reall took a couple of weeks to get rid of them. I tried ant bite but one of my dogs thought it is a treat and pulled them not only out of the container but also destroyed them. DE was not an oltion either because of rain.