I garden primarily organically, benefiting from good bugs which usually keep the bad bugs under control. However, I am stymied by scale. Scale is a weird little bug thing that looks like little lumps on the plant. They secrete a sticky substance much loved by ants. Therefore, the ants will 'farm' the scale, to increase the yield of whatever it is they get from them them. I have thrown out multiple plants just because the scale overtakes them and I do not want it to spread, but do not know how to get rid of it. I currently have scale on some of my houseplants like this one above. I have moved them outside and we will try horticulture oil spray to see if that gets rid of them. The pesticide sprays make me too sick to use, so Jerry will do the dirty job.
Gross! I hope you can get rid of it for good. I would hate to see your lovely plants ruined from this.
ReplyDeleteI decided to spray them with orange oil cleaner. They say horticultural oil or soap, so I thought, maybe???? At least this does not make me sick and is easy to use. So we will see. I read online they are using orange oil to kill termites. I am thinking possibly the orange oil, which cuts grease, might disolve the waxy coating on the scale. Ew!
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