Freaking out because of scale

10 years ago

I was clipping my basil plant so I could dry some of it. While doing so I noticed it was sticky and I found little oval, brown stripped spots. In a panic I asked my boyfriend to come look. Well, we both think they look like bugs. And so my fear is confirmed.... scale.

Immediately I start thinking about the little palm that had been sharing the kitchen window sill with the basil. The tips of his leaves have started to turn brown and he wasn't looking too happy. I thought he wasn't getting enough light so I moved him to the bedroom window sill, where about six more plants live. I go and check him and sure enough he has little brown oval spots at the base of his leaves.

Now I am in a full blown panic!! I have roughly 25-30 plants in my apartment, nearly half of which are in the bedroom. The palm is back to the kitchen by himself and the basil is sitting on the porch in about 30 degree weather with a foot and a half of snow. I can always grow more basil. The ivy, palm, aloe, dumb cane, scheff, and baby spiders, as well as a few other, I can't just get more.

Any help on how to treat the already infected and how to prevent the scale from spreading would be very much appreciated. I am almost in tears because I keep thinking all of my plants will get it and die. :(

Comments (3)

Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
10 years ago
So sorry that happened! One of my palms had scale on it last winter. It took a few hours to clean every part I could reach with Q-tips & rubbing alcohol. I didn't think I did that great of a job and have always expected to need to do it again but I haven't seen any more brown bumps on it. The ones I saw on my tree were on the trunk, never saw anything on the leaves but I cleaned them too. I did remove the lowest couple leaves because I was worried the scales were down in the hollow where the petiole meets the trunk but didn't see anything in there after I took them off.
Jaycee27
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you for the advice! Do you have any ideas on how I cam prevent it from spreading? I've separated The infected plant but I'm worried about my other plants catching it.
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meyermike_1micha
10 years ago
Naturally which takes lots of persistence is to spray Rosemary, or Horticultural, or Kneem oil over a periods of weeks, once a week....

Fast and effective chemically is systemically...I use Bayer Systemic and water into my plants outside on any day over 40...

Both will work, one working much faster than the other..

The only problem with systemics is that they do not kill spider mites and may even encourage them to populate any plant..But, but they are a lot easier in my opinion to take care of and worth the effort.

Of course, with systemic of any other chemical spray, one needs to be cautious about edible plants, if anything, avoid using them.

Mike

This post was edited by meyermike_1micha on Tue, Dec 24, 13 at 17:02