scale on Wahoo

Hello!
My wahoo had scale last year. I called my local Arboretum (Dawes) to see what the best treatment was. They said get Merit and put on in early spring.
I applied in early April. (could not find the product anywhere before then). I drenched the ground well, according to the directions. The directions said do not apply more than once a year.

The wahoo again has a bad case of scale this year. Evidently the Merit is not working. I have searched but when I put in scale and wahoo, I get a TON of sites for some sort of fish.

I did find the following on a county extension page.....
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control measures for winged euonymus scale:
Water host plants during dry periods.
Examine infested twigs when egg hatch is expected, looking for whitish, flat crawlers.
If crawlers are observed, spray twigs/branches with a biorational product (e.g. horticultural oil or insecticidal soap) or a specific insecticide (e.g. carbaryl, cyfluthrin or malathion) when crawlers first appear. Repeat application if needed due to long crawler hatch period. Note: imidacloprid (Merit) is not effective against this type of scale.
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Hmmmm... sounds like Merit was a poor choice!!

I did buy oil spray to treat it with last fall.... but the place the tree is in, the oil would be about impossible for me to keep off my vinyl siding and decking and still get the tree covered well with the oil. The above mentions insecticidal soap... which *probably* would not harm my siding like the oil.

Can anyone here tell me what to do about the scale? Will the soap work, or do I need to get some sort of insecticide? Or should I just get a chain saw? This has been a really wonderful tree (it's a really nice shaped single trunk, about 15 feet high)... until last year. Now it has a few dead branches, and looks bad enough that I am wondering if it will make it through another year.

Thanks everyone!
Jules

Thanks Resin....
I didn't find much with your search suggestions (at least not in the first few pages of results.)
But, your suggestion did lead me to try

"euonymus scale" treatment

which did lead me to a lot of info.

Sounds like the best thing for me in this situation is a chain saw. :-( There is no way for me to adequately (sp?) spray the tree with insecticide, and I can't use the oil.... It's in an odd spot, and just not easy to access it. If it was a small bush, I could, but it's to big for me to address now.

Thanks for helping with my search.

Bummer.

Now I am wondering if these insects will attack my regular "burning bushes".... Hope not, but at least they are in an area where they can be treated with sprays... and are small enough for me to do it.


Here is what I found for anyone else reading and wondering about this...
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Euonymus Scale Euonymus scale females are dark brown or gray, about 1/16" long, and resemble oystershell scales, but are more pear shaped. They more commonly occur on the stems of host plants. Male shells are smaller, narrow, white, more abundant than the females. They are easy to see on stems and leaves. Euonymus, pachysandra and bittersweet are hosts. Eggs hatch in early May in central Kentucky. First brood crawlers are active in late May; and the overlapping second and third broods are active from late July to early September.

Treatment of scales may be achieved with either horticultural oil sprays, which kill primarily by smothering, insecticidal soap or by conventional insecticides. Oil sprays kill all stages of the scale but caution should be used as some plants are sensitive to the oil. Refer to the product label for guidelines on plant sensitivity and any temperature restrictions.

Contact insecticides should be applied during the growing season when the crawler stages of the scales are present. The presence of crawlers can sometimes be determined by tapping an infested twig or branch over a white paper. Crawlers are often orange, brown or purple and appear as moving specks of dust. Because of their waxy protective covering, other stages of scales are not readily controlled by contact insecticides. Contact insecticide sprays will not reach crawlers that have settled under old scales.

Insecticides registered for scale crawler control on outdoor plants include: Cygon (dimethoate), Dursban (chlorpyrifos), Diazinon, Malathion, Orthene (acephate) and Sevin (carbaryl). Although resistance to insecticides may occur in some cases, failure of contact sprays is more often the result of not timing the applications to coincide with crawler activity. Even when sprays are timed for optimum effect, complete control may not be achieved by single applications if crawler activity is spread over an extended period of time, or if populations are heavy and crawlers are under old scale shells. Thorough spray coverage is essential for good control

I was going to say just filet the wahoo, good eats.