mealy bugs and scale...

A friend of mine is constantly getting scale and mealy bugs. Where do they come from? Are they always present but not active until the conditions are just right? She gets rid of them and then poof! A month or so later they are back. Are there any theories about where they are lurking waiting to attack??

Here's some info on mealy bugs you might find interesting
http://www.hortnet.co.nz/publications/hortfacts/hf401032.htm

And here's some scale info. Enjoy.http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/ipm/messages2002/Scale%20Insects%20-%20Outdoors.shtml

I know this is an old thread but maybe someone else might find my info useful or even amusing. I have been told (and have experienced this myself) that ants can bring mealybugs with them. The two infestations of mine (ant & mealybug) came hand in hand. I removed the mealybugs and the ants were gone. Just some humble thought. Maybe someone can prove me wrong.

Jake

This message was edited Jun 13, 2006 6:21 PM

I'm not going to try to prove you wrong 'cause you are probably right. Ants farm some sucking insects - aphids and scale are two. Mealybugs are sucking insects. The excess sap that they don't digest goes out the other end as honeydew. The ants will actually stroke aphids to get them to release this. They feed on it. And they will take aphid eggs down into their nests to overwinter, then bring the aphids back up onto a plant in the spring. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they did the same with mealybugs, although I haven't personally read about it or encountered it. You know, the mealybug destroyer, which is the larva of a teeny little lady beetle, looks a lot like a mealy bug - its disguise to infiltrate the herd, which is watched over by ants. That would seem to ensure that the two go hand in hand.
CJ

Old thread or not, I just discovered scale in my garden in several places and trying not to panic.

What eats scale?

Oh boy! Somehow I deleted my own post! Anyway, I have been fighting armored scales in ALL my palm trees. It's a nightmare! I've applied Bayer tree & shrub insect control and I think it's helping....it's supposed to control pests for 12 months.

I'm going to cut the rose with it down to the ground (it seems to like that, anyway, 'cause it keeps coming back) and spray with Soap Shield insecticidal soap from Gardens Alive the little lemon that has them. I'm surprised I have it on hand, but no sprayer handy (and no trip to town planned soon).

I used aphytis melinus last year.These wasps cleared the scale out pretty quick for me.
Green Lacewings got rid of the rest of my bug problems.
They seemed to overwinter too.

http://www.tiptopbio.com/images/TipTopbio_catalog_final-web.pdf

There are many companies that sell benificial bugs,this one is jst the one the nursery up the street uses.

Twice-stabbed lady beetles took care of my scale....

Wow, that's good to know! Did it really work for you? I bought a gaziliion ladybugs for aphids once, I released them at night, etc...but 2 days later they were all gone! I even joked that the aphids had eaten the ladybugs, ehhehe

I use Lacewings because whenever I've used ladybugs they don't stay around very long.Even the ones they sell as "stay at home ladybugs" allways leave.
I think lacewings reproduce more or faster too.
They have a habit of laying their eggs right in the middle of the largest concentration of aphids they can find.
The predator wasps have everything beat in getting rid of aphids though.

Smokemaster is right. And they don't sell the twice-stabbed LBs anyway. They came to me the natural way. And boy, was I glad to see them. They totally annihilated all of the scale on a large oleander I had that was absolutely covered with scale, and then moved on to my neighbor's oleanders.

The LBs they sell are scooped up in California mountains where they go for the winter- while they are dormant. And when you release them from the container, they head back home. The only hope we have is that a few will lay eggs before they fly off. The babies can't fly, and they are voracious insect eaters. One of the tricks is to spray the infested plant with water (they're dehydrated at this point) or even sugar water, and release them at the base of the plant, at night, when they are not in the flying mode. Supposedly they will linger to drink/feed and stay long enough to lay some eggs. But they aren't the species that eat scale anyway. Aphids are their major entree, with some other small bodies insects if available.

I once bought LBs and released them at night into my screened-in pool area. I thought - Aha! You can't fly away now! They all just flew to the top of the screen and died off.

You can buy lacewing eggs for scale. I don't know how effective they are. I did it once (same screened-in pool area) and never did see the larvae or adult lacewings, so the eggs may have been dead already. Or they didn't like the scale.

Scale is a hard one to control.

I can't tell you how much I am sufferig with scale. See those palm trees? They are ALL covered in scale! I even took a sample to the local agric. department. They id'd it as "red date palm scale", it's an armored scale of some sort..
So which one of those predators are the most efficient for scales?

Surely they told you what your choices were.... They should be the experts.

here you go,some info to help you decide:

Ladybugs

Scientific Name
Hippodamia convergens

Temperature range
65°– 100° Fahrenheit.

Adult
Beetle- Orange body with black dots, black and white head.

Eggs
Tiny black and orange alligator shape, grows 3 to 4 weeks and devours hundreds of aphids.

Pupa
For one week.

Feeds On
Aphids, Mites, Scale, Thrips, Whiteflies, larva and eggs.

Shipped
In natural, unbleached, reusable cotton bag.

Store
In refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Release Rates
At dusk, after spraying some plants with water, so they can drink. Release near infestations in small amounts over a two week period.

1,000 ladybugs covers 100 sq. feet.
Half pint covers 3,000 sq. feet.
1 gallon covers 5 – 10 acres.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aphid Exterminator "aka" Green Lacewings

Scientific Name
Chrysoperia carnea, C. comanche and Chrysoperia rufilabris

Temperature range
60°– 80° Fahrenheit, 20% – 80% relative humidity.

Adult
Green or brown fragile insect with a small head, large eyes and transparent net wings.

Eggs
Small, white or green, on end of a hair-like filament, attached to leaf or stem.

Larva
"Aphid Lion" is alligator shaped, grows 2 to 3 weeks. Consumes 200 – 300 Aphids in its life.

Pupa
In a silk cocoon for 1 week.

Feeds On
Aphids, Mealybugs, Scale, Spider Mites, Thrips, Whiteflies, small Caterpillars, insect eggs, and larvae. Nectar and pollen for the adults, also Beneficial Insect food.

Shipped
A) As eggs in rice hulls, or on cards B) Pre-fed larva in frames (individual compartments) or bottles, C) Adults.

Release Rates
Release immediately. Interiorscape: 1,000 eggs per 500 sq. feet; Gardens: 1,000 eggs per 2,500 sq. feet; Field Crops: 5,000 per acre.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aphytis Melinus - (Parasite)

Temperature range
76°– 85° Fahrenheit, 40% – 50% Relative Humidity.


Adult
A tiny, golden chalcid wasp.

Eggs
Lays up to 25 eggs underneath female Scales.

Larva
Eat inside of Scale , then pupate inside host.

Feeds On
Wasp parasitizes armored scale, (those that do not produce honeydew), such as California Citrus Red Scale, Oleander Scale, Oyster Scale, San Jose Scale, Ivy Scale, and Yellow Scale.

Shipped
As Adults.

Release Rates
5 – 10 per plant or 3 per 1 sq. ft. every 2 – 3 weeks until under control or 5,000 to 10,000 per acre, per year. Works very well in greenhouses and outside. Aphytis will establish a population.

Note: These guys worked great for me when I had a big time red scale infestation last year.I don't know how weather tolorant they are for other places.But it was during 100 degree days and high 70-low 80 degree nights when I let them go.
I letthem go at dark thirty AM.I work graveyard shift...I always water,as recomended for most bennificials before releasing them.
They seem to have overwintered though they weren't supposed to handle the cold temps. we had last Feb.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rhyzobuis Lophantae (Lindorus) - (Predator)

Temperature range
75°– 85° Fahrenheit, 65% Relative Humidity

Adult
Small, shiny, black Lady bird beetle with redish head. Takes 35 – 60 days to cycle.

Eggs
Lays hundreds of eggs under scale bodies that hatch weekly.

Larva
Greyish, alligator shaped, with light colored bands running lengthwise along abdomen. Feeds on scale eggs (crawls for 2 weeks).

Feeds On
Purple scale, black scale, red scale and many other types of scales, hard and soft, including armored scale. Can be used along with scale parasites. Also feed on mealybugs and insect eggs.

Shipped
As pre-fed, pre-mated adults.

Release Rates
5 per .09 sq. ft. of planted area, 5 – 10 per heavily infested large plant and 20 – 30 per tree.

Note: Called "The Scale Destroyer", as they love scales. Does not diapause. Observed active in temperatures as low as 40° Fahrenheit.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Delphastus Pusillus - (Predator)

Temperature range
65°– 90° Fahrenheit. 20% – 80% Relative Humidity

Adult
Minute black lady beetle about the size of the bottom half of the figure "8". Female will live about 50 days laying 3-4 eggs per day if whiteflies are plentiful. They require 100-150 whitefly eggs per day to maintain laying.

Feeds On
They have a voracious appetite for whitefly eggs, scale and spider mites.

Release Rates
1 beetle per 15 - 50 sq. ft. 10-20 per plant biweekly depending on the infestation or 2,000 per 3,000 sq. ft. Use along with Encarsia formosa. Very effective for sweet potato whitefly.

Note: Works well in low temperatures and low light.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Garden packs if you can't decide. LOL

http://www.tiptopbio.com/gard_g_packs.html

I only know from experiance about the stuff I've tried so far.I wanted to try the Rhyzobuis Lophantae (Lindorus) - (Predator) but they didn't have any when I needed them-out for the season.
They sound like they might be a better scale predator than the wasps and maybe more tolorant of adverse conditions,I don't really know, the guy at the nursery said they were better.

If I had bug problems again this year I'd put my money on Lacewings and the scale predators(wasp or maybe the ladybug species- if they weren't as migratory as the regular ladybugs).
Lacewing larva eats many different kinds of undesirables and a scale predator with it should do the job faster.
You might run into a problem with Lacewing Larva eating the other larva though.
Those lacewing larva eat anything they can catch.

I'm in the San Franando valley which is probably less humid than Sandy Eggo.
I'd think the same predators would be able to survive in both places though.
Tip Top Bio-control is in Ventura County.

P.O. Box 7614
westlake village,Ca. 91359

phone (805)482-7846

tiptopbio@Yahoo.com

Here is the link from their site for ordering stuff from them.

http://www.gardeningzone.com/

Click on what bug you need to control for info.

http://gardeningzone.com/index_25.html?osCsid=e40940a6c4e4c49ae0c52c1e0278c381

There are many other companies that have info and might sell cheeper.
I use these guys because they are close to where I live and I get their products fast in the mail when I send in the card...

I've also found that releasing bennificials in smaller numbers seems to work better than a bunch at once.
I put the lacewing eggs in several envelopes stapled to branches all over my garden.Probably 2-3 times more envelopes than they give you.Those larva are born hungry and will snack on each other on their way out of the envelope to find other nasties to eat if it's easier.
Ants love to eat lacewing and ladybug eggs.

Perrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrfect! thank you so much!

thanks for the information smokemaster.