What can I soak a sick plant in for serious scale?

[Andrew]

I would have thought Mavrik would have worked but it's not systemic and if you're only spraying weekly in summer they'll have time to lay eggs between sprays so you won't break the life cycle. Regardless of what you spray with, if you don't clear up scale within 2 weeks consider the pesticide or how you're applying it to be ineffective and try something else. 2 months of spraying with no results will do your nut.

[greengarden]

Thanks, I am just pumping CO2 in from a small CO2 cylinder. I might give it another dose tonight and leave it in until the morning.

[Stray59]

Greengarden;
I hope the CO2 cartridges have enough in them to work; I have only used the dry ice and you can see the fog it makes so you know you have filled the container with nothing but CO2.
BTW - this is not my idea - I stole it from a member who posted (with pics) in the Terrarium Section here on the Board. He had a centipede infestation and did not want to use pesticides in his terrarium so he tried this method and it worked very great for him - thus I tried it.
I have no objection to responsibly using chemicals - Malathion has always done well for me. But sometimes as I say, the plant harbors bugs in places that chems don't reach. I am not comfortable with systemics due to no evidence of long term effects - I plan to breed and sell someday so this concerns me for future generations.
I hope this works for you - again I have never tried CO2 in the little canisters before so I have no input on that, but it is worth a try!
Steve
Here is the name of the post from the Terrarium Section
"MUST READ - Getting Rid of Pests in terrariums " from 08/23/2005 - it worked well enough that they made it a "sticky" so it is found in the upper 4 posts that have been made into "sticky" posts.
Great pics - read through it, see the pics and get an idea of how this is supposed to work!

[gingerbreadwoman1]

if you use a solution of one part dish soap and one part vinegar with 4 parts water to knock the buggars off initially; let set for two minutes then rinse the plant thouroughly with warm water. Do this daily until they seem to stay away. Then to maintain, dilute this solution with eight more parts water then spray nightly until they no longer make their appearance known. I learned this with my organic gardening and scale took over my broccoli...same works for orchids just needs a bit more TLC to keep from spotting the leaves.

[greengarden]

I use the same CO2 canisters to euthanise mice if necessary, they have a lot of CO2 in them, 8-9 months of carbonating soft drinks for us, doesn't take long to fill the container.

[AaronC]

Get a bottle of Dr.Bronners Peppermint Soap (Organic). Mix 1 and a half Tablespoons of the soap in with 1 gallon (3.78L) of warm water. Spray the plant down (Soak it) A couple times a week with a spray bottle of the solution. The Soap actually penetrates the scales shell and kills them on contact. You will still have to scrape them off with a cotton swab or toothpick as they are still on the plant after being dead. I have a large Cymbidium that got a bad case of scale on it and after 2 treatments of Dr.Bronners it is gone. I still treat all my plants once a months to the solution because bugs don't like the smell of Peppermint and it keeps them away.