Scale Insects

//Scale Insects

We can’t see clearly enought to be definitive, but this appears to be either scale insects or spider mites, nor can we say which species, from this photo. Neither of these plant pests usually cause major problems to plant health unless their population is very large. However, if you don’t control them, and the conditions are right for their reproduction, they can get out of control. Keep your plant healthy and it will be better able to withstand the feeding. Control for scales varies by species or type of scale, but spider mite controls are mostly generalized. We’ve included web links for your reference in controlling these pests outdoors, but if this is a house-plant and the population is not large right now, we suggest you use a dilute solution of rubbing alcohol and water on a damp cloth and wipe the scales/mistes off of the leaf and stems. Don’t over-do the alcohol as you can cause damage to the protective leaf cuticle with too high a concentration. You can also give the plant(s) a shower, literally, to clean off the pests, and any sticky exudate left by the scale feeding. Keep an eye out and continue to remove new developing pests. Otherwise, if the population numbers are high you can use pesticidal products, but they may not be very effective on the adult (covered) stage of the scale (they will work on the younger crawler stage if applied correctly), but they can be effective on mites. We recommend you use horticultural oils or pesticidal soaps whenever possible (you’ll want to apply outdoors, but keep the plant in a shady location and make sure its watered a few hours before applying the oil to avoid burning the plant tissues)
For outdoor plants: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/QT/scalescard.html
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/QT/spidermitescard.html

By | 2015-11-23T18:53:34-08:00 November 23rd, 2015|Plant Pests|0 Comments

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