Scale?

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Scale?

Post by adge0001 »

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Found a heap of these little mongrels on my Atlantic cedar, today. I've been lucky up until now and never had any bugs on my trees, so never really looked into the subject of pests.

So my questions are.... This is scale, right? ...and if so, what's a good method to rid my poor tree of these suckers? I've read diluted white vinegar or oil is good.

Cheers
Adrian


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Last edited by adge0001 on October 23rd, 2014, 8:34 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Scale?

Post by Inspired »

Anyone with the most effective treatment of this common need conifer enemy?
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Re: Scale?

Post by shibui »

Despite the clear photo I still cannot make out enough detail to confirm scale.
Scales are stuck on the leaves, twigs and sometimes trunks. They are a hard shell to protect the soft insect underneath.

Oil sprays are often recommended for scale - White oil, eco-oil, etc but read the label carefully first - some oil sprays can harm the plant when temps are warmer.
Systemic insecticides like Confidor will also control them.

You will probably need a follow up treatment as new eggs hatch.
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Re: Scale?

Post by RogerW »

Thumb and finger squeezing is very effective on scale, depending on size and numbers
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Re: Scale?

Post by adge0001 »

Thanks guys, I've treated it with some Eco-oil. We'll see how it goes.


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Re: Scale?

Post by Dose123 »

- White oil, eco-oil, etc but read the label carefully first
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Re: Scale?

Post by Djs19992 »

Just be careful with the oils they work but suffocating the scale which also stops the plant from breathing, some plants are fine with that and some suffer


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Re: Scale?

Post by Inspired »

Does pine needles have adverse reaction to a coating of oil and therefore not breathing?
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Re: Scale?

Post by Djs19992 »

http://migarden.msu.edu/uploads/files/e2812.pdf sounds ok depending on where the scale is in its lifecycle


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Re: Scale?

Post by adge0001 »

From looking over that first page I can see that I have the immature scale on my Atlantic cedar. Thank you for that good resource, djs. I've saved it for reading.


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Re: Scale?

Post by adge0001 »

So two days later after spraying the "immature hyaline (stage) scale" they basically fall or rub off with ease on my Atlantic cedar.

Image
This is the stuff I used. They were stuck on quite well on Thursday, and as I said they seem a to be not liking their oil treatment. I'll continue to check every day, but hopefully by next weekend they'll be gone or well on the way to it. The literature supplied a few post above by djs is recommended reading material.


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