the Soft Brown Scale has landed

[bethmarie]

After a stretch of some weeks treating soft brown scale with qtips and isopropyl, I'm looking for another way to eradicate these creatures.
I'm having trouble finding any of the recommended chemicals for less than a king's ransom, though.

I'm sure this has been discussed elsewhere on the site, but my searches didn't turn up anything.

If you want to share your experience, maybe with a side of hope, I'll just sit right here and listen.

[Dollythehun]

I sprayed mine weekly with insecticidal soap. I removed any I saw with a a tip or soapy sponge. If you are in a safe area, you could spray on Bayer 3 in 1 Rose spray. Mine are in the kitchen, so I may have been overly cautious. It has been a process and I can not over emphasize isolating newcomers.

[bil]

Originally Posted by bethmarie

After a stretch of some weeks treating soft brown scale with qtips and isopropyl, I'm looking for another way to eradicate these creatures.
I'm having trouble finding any of the recommended chemicals for less than a king's ransom, though.

I'm sure this has been discussed elsewhere on the site, but my searches didn't turn up anything.

If you want to share your experience, maybe with a side of hope, I'll just sit right here and listen.

Yeah. I know the environmentally friendly methods sound great, but having tried a few I no longer bother. Get some chemical megadeath. Something systemic. When I have pests on my plants I want them dead tooty sweetie, and I am only sorry that when I spray, I can't hear them scream.

[Subrosa]

I'm with Bil. I would rather spend time doing enjoyable things with my plants than picking bugs off of them. If something attacks while they're in for the winter they go into the shower and get sprayed down.

[jcec1]

Originally Posted by bil

Yeah. I know the environmentally friendly methods sound great, but having tried a few I no longer bother. Get some chemical megadeath. Something systemic. When I have pests on my plants I want them dead tooty sweetie, and I am only sorry that when I spray, I can't hear them scream.

The good thing about systemics is that indoors if you are worried about toxicity, you don't have to spray them, just water them in.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Hi bethmarie

You really can't go wrong with the Bayer Advanced products containing imidacloprid. Sold everywhere in home improvement stores in blue plastic bottles. If you have a fairly large number of plants, it is worth (i.e., less expensive over all) getting one of the more concentrated products sold in blue plastic hose-end sprayers and doing the dilutions yourself. St. Augustine Orchid Society's website has a pesticide chart with recommendations for diluting a few Bayer products. If dilution seems like too much of a pain, get the Bayer Advanced Rose & Flower, ready-to-go in the spray bottle.

With any of these products, unpot, remove as much medium as you can, and any dead leaf bases, dead bracts, and so forth. With a soft toothbrush and dilute dish detergent, gently scrub all surfaces of leaves, stems, pseudobulbs. Rinse off the detergent.

Outdoors if possible, spray all parts leaves, stems, pseudobulbs, and ROOTS, with the pesticide. Spray the new medium with pesticide before repotting, then repot as usual. If spraying outdoors is not possible, do in the shower.

Repeat spraying at weekly intervals for at least a month.

[Leafmite]

I have not used any systemics on my orchids, yet, as these pests prefer my other plants, especially the ones that have edible leaves or produce fruit. If I want to eat the fruit, I cannot use a systemic. Bees and humming birds pollinate those plants, too. :|

I just dealt with both scale and mealy bugs on all of my edible plants. The infestation appeared very quickly, a month ago.

The citrus were covered so I sprayed them with olive oil and let them sit for eight hours, then washed the oil off with soapy water. That is very time consuming but it kills everything quickly. Nothing survives being smothered in olive oil.

I have been using neem oil on the rest and it took care of the scale but not the mealies so I used Diatomaceous earth and that seems to have finished those off. Neem oil takes some patience, though, and several applications.

As you need this for orchids and they are not going to be eaten, you have the freedom to use systemics. Indoors, I would go that route as you need not spray.

They sell fertilizer/systemic slow release stuff for potted plants: Amazon.com : Bayer Advanced 701710 2-in-1 Insect Control Plus Fertilizer Plant Spikes, 10-Spikes : Insect Repellents : Patio, Lawn & Garden
It is recommended for indoor use. It has fertilizer, though.

This product doesn't have fertilizer:
Amazon.com : Bonide 963 Concentrate Rose Drench for Insect Control : Patio, Lawn & Garden

Outdoors, I use Malathion (for my fruit trees) and that is very good. Another outdoor pesticide is Sevin. It works well on everything except spider mite.

[bethmarie]

Thank you, all. I don't know which plant brought these in, but I didn't isolate, so I suppose I do know who the real culprit is
Thanks, OW for the Bayer recommendation. I actually have some, but in my late night research, I didn't see imidacloprid mentioned as effective against these wee monsters.
Is Chemical Megadeath a band name? If not, it ought to be.

[bil]

Originally Posted by bethmarie

Thank you, all. I don't know which plant brought these in, but I didn't isolate, so I suppose I do know who the real culprit is
Thanks, OW for the Bayer recommendation. I actually have some, but in my late night research, I didn't see imidacloprid mentioned as effective against these wee monsters.
Is Chemical Megadeath a band name? If not, it ought to be.

Imacloporid as mentioned above is the dog's licky bits. It is also a contact insecticide, so I spray it. If you are sensible, spraying isn't a problem. That way none of them quit the plant to move elsewhere.

---------- Post added at 11:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:40 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Leafmite

I have not used any systemics on my orchids, yet, as these pests prefer my other plants, especially the ones that have edible leaves or produce fruit. If I want to eat the fruit, I cannot use a systemic. Bees and humming birds pollinate those plants, too. :|

Imacloporid has the advantage that you can just drip it raw onto the tree trunk and it kills everything that eats the plant for some time. The trick is to time it so that the last dose is given a month before you can eat it. Also if you avoid the short flowering season, you don't have to worry about bees or birds.
The dose is about 5 ccs on an orange tree trunk where the tree is 2-3 metres in diam.

[Leafmite]

I actually thought about using it and I know citrus growers are using it to try to control Citrus Greening but all the research papers I found seem to indicate that traces are still found in the fruit during harvest, even when treating just after the blooms fall. It is one thing to buy fruit that contains pesticides but another to grow it. No matter, I seem to have the scale and mealy bugs under control, now, and in the spring, I can always hit them with Malathion when spraying my outdoor fruit trees and finish off whatever issues they might still have.