Re: [Aroid-l] scale insect

From: Jonathan Ertelt <jonathan.ertelt at vanderbilt.edu> on 2009.09.01 at 19:57:00(19894) Be aware that if you wipe the scale away with your finger(s) and don't wash your hands right away, and/or don't follow up that "wiping away" with an oil, soap, or alcohol product, you might well be spreading the infestation rather than curtailing it. To see what I mean by this find a couple of older looking well attached scale insects, wipe them with your finger and then use a 10x lens and look at the plant or at your finger tip. What you will see will generally be dozens of very minute crawlers, the early stage of the scale insect. I would suggest that rather than using your finger that you use a q-tip, or some other similar soft-tipped wiping tool which you have soaked with a soap, alcohol, or oil solution. Even with this you will likely need a follow-up cleaning in another week to ten days. I have recently been reading extensive posts about utilizing used coffee grounds as a top dressing on the soil for cycads, and also to make a weak coffee "tea" for spraying the foliage on cycads, but I do not yet have personal experience with this and have not yet tried it on any other plants, though I fully intend to do so. Jonathan +More >Depending on the severity I would wipe scale with my fingers and >apply a horticultural oil product, or just the oil if to many to >wipe with fingers. >Apply so the foliage is saturated all over and under the leaves.Most >scale you will find feeding along the leaf veins. -- Jonathan Ertelt **Life is what's happening all around you while you're focused on that little electronic device.** _______________________________________________ Aroid-L mailing list Aroid-L@www.gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l

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