I had a friend take care of my dracaena fragrans over the summer, and it was returned with a giant scale infestation. This plant has eight heads... any tips on dealing with scales on this scale (hah)?
In the past, I've put systemic pesticide in the soil and used rubbing alcohol with a Q-tip. But this is such a giant plant....
Will it die if I just put systemic pesticide in the soil?
(this is an old photo - it's even bigger now)
well not sure about the systemic. I spend a whole winter trying to get scale off a houseplanted pot of giant papyrus. Lots of q-tips and cotton balls. It was clean by spring.......
;-0
You might want to try Bayer Advanced Tree & Shrub, 1 tsp per gallon of water. I just used it on some plants to take care of aphids but soft scale insects are listed as one it works on too. It is a systemic product and someone told me to give it awhile ... the bugs won't go away overnight, it takes a few days for the plant to draw up the systemic through it's system.
Just a side note: Be careful around children and pets with any chemicals you may use for your plants. I've heard the active ingredient in BATS is what is used in flea control (like Advantage)for pets, but I don't think we'd want them possibly drinking the water with that stuff in it.
I just treated the soil with Imidaclopirid (fortunately I'm in Wisconsin, not California, since apparently it doesn't work on scale there.;)), and I filled a spray bottle with rubbing alcohol and sprayed the plant as thoroughly as I could.
I have had some lower leaf die-off, particularly on one head, but so far it has been unaffected otherwise.
Fortunately, the only children & pets around here are my plants, so needn't worry about poisonings! ;)
Something else, even if the scale insects are killed by the Bayer systemic, they won't fall off. They will still be there. So the Bayer may be working even though it doesn't look like it is.
