Mastodawn

I need pest help 🙏 Does anyone have an effective way to get rid of scale insects? I didn't really find anything that would eliminate all stages. I saw a recommendation for tobacco "tea", but before I go search for tobacco, I'd like to hear other people's experience. The bastards are almost invisible on the plants, and are killing my poinsettia 😭 (it's easier to see them on citrus plants, and scrape them off). I'll take something that will make the sap toxic for them, too.

#gardening #pests

EntangledPear Mar 4

The photo is from https://jomostudio.com/blogs/plant-with-jomo/common-houseplant-pests-how-to-deal-with-scale , where horticultural oil is recommended, which, however, on other sites, is said to be ineffective on the waxy stage 😞

Common Houseplant Pests: How to Deal with Scale

The most non-bug looking pest of them all! Similar to barnacles in the ocean, they often go unnoticed as they are such strange-looking pests and appear not to be mobile. Keep an eye out for these guys as they can be just as destructible as any other pest if left to themselves for too long! Why does My Plant have Pests?

JOMO Studio

Dagnabbit, Pascaline! 💥Mar 4

@EntangledPear
I used tobacco years ago, it was effective but also damaged plants. The aphids were gone but it also kills good bugs. I would only repeat this if things got out of control.

I used Windex/Glassex eons ago inside, this was terrific. I had a vague idea it would help. This was before internet, and I never actually looked for this use online 😂 It got rid of aphids on a house plant. But some bugs are extremely difficult to get rid of, and some plants hardly have defences against them.

EntangledPear Mar 4

@pascaline Ain't that the truth. I used to have huge problems with spider mites, but found that horticultural oil works quite well. Of course, air movement is the best, which is harder to achieve inside - the poinsettia never went outside, I wonder if I should try 🤔

Dagnabbit, Pascaline! 💥Mar 4

Ah yes, that could be interesting.
Some house plants really benefit from going outside. You can try!

EntangledPear Mar 4

@pascaline I kept it inside because it was growing the red leaves, which I heard is difficult to achieve, so I didn't want to change its conditions. But I'll try taking it out this year, if it helps it to survive 🥺

Dagnabbit, Pascaline! 💥Mar 4

Oooh, that is tricky then!
What a tough decision this will be. Ugh 💖

They are quite soft. I scrape them off with a fingernail.

EntangledPear Mar 4

@lionelb I do that, too, and it works great on most plants, but they seem to be even more "invisible" on the poinsettia. They leave the sticky residue, which helps find them, but I never get all of them 😭

External treatments can't get at them through the shell, so systemic is the only treatment solution.

Unless you have very specialised light, temperature control and watering, poinsettias are not suitable for use as houseplants.

For the coloured bracts, I would buy fresh each time and treat them as cut flowers.

EntangledPear Mar 4

@lionelb I had this one for several years, from a very small one, then munched on by cat (no problems beside throwing it up for the cat, since it was so small), surviving that and even flowering for the previous two years. Producing the red leaves, too. I was quite surprised by how well it was doing.

Good to hear. Being in the right latitude must help a lot. They are notoriously difficult.

Lee from Colorado Mar 4

@EntangledPear we control by hand: check every couple days and scrape them off w/ fingernails. It's kind of a pain, but it works.

EntangledPear Mar 4

@colo_lee I was hoping to avoid this 😭

Lee from Colorado Mar 4

@EntangledPear I too would like to avoid that ...
😅😅

@EntangledPear out of the blue remembered Bonide systemic Imidiprocil .2%

EntangledPear Mar 8

@PokiLoki Cool, thank you! I'll look it up, if it's sold here.