How to defeat scale

[khozmo]

I have about 5 orchids I rescued from certain death in my mothers backyard. I have the potted up in both S/H and course bark. now that they have "settled" down some are putting out nice roots others are hopefully about to. Now that they have stopped dying I noticed scale on the leaves. I would prefer not to have to toss them out if I can.

Is there a way to get rid of scale or is it better to admit defeat now and go an buy some nice healthy orchids.

I think the orchids that I have saved are oncidiums.

[Des]

Just wipe the scale off with some alcohol on a cloth
and spray with a systemic insecticide for scale . You will find some at your local garden shop

[kiki-do]

I agree with Des, but also you want to keep the healthy ones separated and isolate these until you know without a doubt that all scale is gone. Sometimes they need two or three applications. Them little critters can hide good.

[khozmo]

Would it help if I repotted them all into S/H. I am not sure if the woodchips provide better refuge for the earlier phases of the scales life?

Oh BTW Des how is the weather in SA... I am an ex capetonian

[Des]

Originally Posted by khozmo

Would it help if I repotted them all into S/H. I am not sure if the woodchips provide better refuge for the earlier phases of the scales life?

Oh BTW Des how is the weather in SA... I am an ex capetonian

Oh boy!, Poor Cape TOwn has been hit by so many storms this winter !!I really feel sorry for them . It has also been rough here in PE ,but Cape Town always gets the worst of the winter storms ,and this year seems to have been a lot worse than usual .and another big storm is predicted to hit over the next few days What happened to global warming !!

[khozmo]

Yeah I remember when I left 10 years ago there was one moere storm flooded our house in Sea Point up on signal hill. I always enjoyed the storms there. I miss the rain. San Diego is great but its pretty much mild weather in the winter time around 23ish but right now its mid-30's and I do not want to turn the AC on (electricity has got pricey here). Yah PE gets hammered pretty well in the winter but yes "cape of storms" got its name for a reason. I am amazed at home many people from SA on this board.

I am going to be heading back to the mother land next year in Feb for my sister-in-laws wedding. its gonna be a scorcher I am sure.

Back to orchids for a moment. So any hints on how to get down the the p-bulbs where the leaf curls pretty tight? Ear bud? (cotton swab for all the Americans following along)

Also will the systemic insecticide rid me of the little buggers for good or will they come back again?

[Des]

I have been trying to keep my plants bug free for many years but they are smarter than we are and will find a way of chewing on your plants . Prevention is the best cure though ,so I use sticky traps to catch them at their flying stage, I spray at least once a month with a contact insecticide and ensure that I have good air movement around the plants . I also try and target ants as they are farmers and I suspect them of farming of aphids and scale for the honeydew.
Nowadays I use a wetting agent in the feed water and this seems to help keep bugs at bay
Systemic poisons are only used when i really have a bug problem I cant solve by any other means , it makes the sap within the plant poisonous and will kill sucking bugs anywhere on the plant. The only drawback though is that using a systemic product on a plant that is initiating flower spikes can cause some crippling of the flowers, so I only use it when really needed

[Ray]

I find that scale - if it's not too large of an infestation - can be removed with a soft toothbrush dipped in soapy water (I use Rise & Shine, as it has better insecticidal action than just soap). By repeating the inspection/scrubbing weekly for a few times, you can pretty much get them all.

If the infestation is bad though, I use a mix of Orthene as a killer, and Enstar II IGR as a preventive measure.

[khozmo]

Ray,

The 3 products you just mentioned are they available at common garden stores...

I am not sure what a bad infestation looks like. Right now I think these little buggers are just getting started lots of little yellow dots on the under sides of the leaves. They are pretty small right now. There are a couple of older ones hiding in the crease at the base of the leaf near the pbulbs. those ones are about 1mm big.

I guess I will start with some alcohol just to get started on whacking a few of them. Then go hunting for permanent solutions.

Des right now these plants are in rescue phase. So I do not think I will be seeing any flowers in the near future. The bigger problem right now might be the fact they have little to no roots so no real way to get the poison up to the leaves. I might have to do the manual leaf scrub until I can grow some poison delivery systems .

I assume that due to the hard outer shell they grow they do not respond to topical poisons?

[khozmo]

OKay I went on the hunt to go and find some ways to fight scale. I found some aerosol sparys that could be used to kill scale but was dubious to buy them as I know nothing about them (prefer to buy buy referral).

I also found some organic ones that looked like they were mostly various oils.

Could anyone please point me at some common American brand of pesticides I could use against this scurge. Ray do you sell anything I could use?

I have been to armstrongs and to Home Depot. Probably neither are great choices in the orchid world but they are what I have within 2 miles of my house.