I fough scale with neem, bayer, soap, all sorts of stuff. Nothing worked long term, and in the end the plants all got overwhelmed. Then I tried orthene, and it worked like a charm. They sell it as bonide at HD and Lowe’s, and on Amazon. I don’t use it often, as it’s a nasty chemical, but it kills all scale with one application.

oldmangroot,

I talked to a friend in S. Florida who grows a ton of broms, and he gave me directions to save it. I sent pictures, and because the scale was so bad, unfortunately, it involves cutting off most of the leaves, soaking it in Dawn dishwashing liquid & water overnight, (which removes the protective wax coating on the scale's armor and kills the babies) and then scraping as much of the scale off as possible. He told me that is the best way to make sure it doesn't come back, but also recommended Orthene to kill any that may remain.

I've done the chopping and soaking (which broke my heart!) and started the scraping this morning. I probably won't finish that today, but I have a few done, and will just stick them into a pot with no soil for now, as per his directions. Once I put them back into soil, I'll apply the Orthene.

I'd rather have one or two survive than lose it all. This brom (tri-color Queen's Tears) multiplies rather rapidly. I checked my plain queen's tears, and it is showing some signs of scale also, but not nearly as bad, so I can just treat that with the Orthene and cross my fingers.

I used to use Orthene a lot, but stopped when I went mostly organic. While I've got it, I'll also do a soil drench around my Confederate Rose plants, because white flies are already attacking them, and I see no ladybugs yet to counteract it.

My confederate rose always gets white fly...i always say it should be a backyard plant not a front yard plant but my father planted it smack in the middle of the front yard...when it looks great people stop and ask what it is and when it looks bad it looks horrid.

I remove scale from epi cactus by rubbing the leaves with a cotton ball soaked in alcohol. It comes right off. I then rinse the leaves iff with water.

Ugh! That sounds aweful. Good thing they can grow back from almost nothing. I lost a clump this winter - didn’t see the scale until it was too late. Tried spraying it with soap, but it died anyway. It was already dying back by that point though.

Does this one have a toothy edge?