Help with my Umbrella Plant

I have an typical umbrella plant that has what I think is scale--little sticky flat things all over the leaves. I have washed in soap, sprayed with insecticide, dusted, and cannot rid that plant of those things. Should I just throw it out? or is there hope for it?

Deann

Are they still increasing in numbers? Scale won't just disappear when you spray the insecticide, the dead ones will stay there unless you physically remove them or trim off the affected leaves. Also with something like scale you often need to treat with insecticide several times over a few weeks or so to make sure that you got all of them.

Thanks for the input....I guess I will have to pick them off a leaf at a time.....

Deann

I've used a dishcloth on the plants to wash the dead bodies off. This is after spraying every 3 days to make sure that I killed all the generations of crawler/scale/egg.

Scale is very difficult to get rid of. If the plant is puny and you don't have any sentimental attachment to it (not dear Great Aunt Alice's treasured plant), I'd just pitch it and start again. If not, you can try to use a systemic on it this summer when you summer it outdoors. I've had good success that way as well as with neem/insecticidal soap.

I would say don't give up hope yet. I have treated scale on a Schefflera with Isopropyl Alcohol & water. Say in a small spray bottle 1/2" alcohol, balance water. Spray once a week for three weeks (or longer if needed) I also soaked baby wipes with alcohol & rubbed them off of each leaf and the stems of the plant. It takes time, but it works. The plant had droves of them, man do they reproduce, but it is clean now. Definitely remove the existing ones so you can tell if any new ones have arrived.

You can safely use 100% isopropyl alcohol on most plants, even though all the books say to dilute it. I've been using it on my gardenia all winter (spraying about twice a week) to keep mealybugs under control, with no harm to the plant. I was told by a garden center / florist in Chicago that it was safe. Diluted, it didn't seem to have any effect: remember it's already diluted to 70% in the bottle anyway.
You might try it on only one area of the plant at first to be sure. Good luck.

Hoosier and icanfindroom..............thanks for the tips, I will use them......

Deann