Getting rid of scale

I have what my mother refers to as scale, on several of my plants. It has done a real number on my verbena, but I have also found it on coreopsis, marguerite daisy, pentas, and coneflower. I'd like to treat this organically if possible, but I need to get this under control. Any suggestions? Thanks.

There are several different kinds of scale. I recommend you look in DG's BugFiles for your particular type. Hope this helps.

Also try organicspringtime.com. They recommend one gallon water, two tablespoons dish washing liquid (not dish washer detergent) and a drop or two olive oil. Mix and spray small section of plant to be sure it won't harm plant. If the area sprayed is okay the next day spray the rest.

Thanks. The only picture that looks like what Ihave is the azalea scale. But my region doesn't have many azaleas. I have been treating them with rubbing alcohol applied with a cotton swab. this was my mom's suggestion, but it didn't seem to be getting the job done. I sprayed a few things with the soap/olive oil solution. I'll let ya'll know how it goes. thanks again.

Rampbrat, if you want to go organic inexpensively, go to your local dollar store and pick up a couple cans of vegetable oil spray (Pam). apply it to the underside of the leaves where the scale is. The oil suffocates the scale and is not dangerous to anything else. I would recommend doing this in the late afternoon to prevent scorching the plants.

Be careful with the rubbing alcohol solution. Try diluting a 50-50 mix of rubbing alcohol-water ratio.

You're welcome rampbrat. Let us know if these suggestions remedy the scale problem.

Just as an addition to this thread, I removed scale from a couple of plants over the weekend - the old-fashioned way. I just scraped it off the leaves. I'll let you know if it comes back!

So far neither the alcohol nor the soapy water solutions have worked. As a matter of fact I'm finding it on more plants and some are really suffering. Add to that another week of of temps at or around 100 and my plants are not fairing very well. Any more suggestions?

Rampbrat, you must suffocate the scale....you can purchase neem oil to spray your plants with, or you can use a canned cooking spray oil to spray your plants with. But that is how you treat without heavier chemicals.