PlumberSoCal said:

Having citrus trees means I'll always have to control scale but lately they seem to have branched out, so to speak and are finding the joy of other types of plant sap.
View attachment 899848
When I found they had invaded my wife's orchids and basil sitting in the kitchen window I considered it a one off and nothing to worry about. I was wrong. Our Star Jasmine was badly infected and my worst fears, my cannabis is now on their menu.
View attachment 899849
Found 2 so far trimming a plant I chopped and, what I have learned to be way way worse, I removed a couple in the garden.

Why was that bad? Take a look.
View attachment 899850
Those specks are eggs. Hundreds of eggs. These were disposed of safely but the ones I smashed on the plant released hundreds of eggs and I have pepper seedlings around the area not to mention 3 nice clones a dozen or so feet away. I also worry how many eggs I carried from the garden to the greenhouse.

In the future I'll remove the leaf or if on the stem I understand rubbing an alcohol soaked cotton ball will safely remove the scale and kill the eggs.

These are hard to kill and break their life cycle. Neem oil helps but once scale are established and thriving even a weekly heavy coating doesn't seem to do enough.

Ants eat the honey dew like excrement from the scale and protect them from natural predators so ants need to be controlled as well.

Normally by this time I'm thinking of harvest and it would be 6 months before I'd plant more and there would be little thought of bugs, but this year I'm growing in coco in a greenhouse. No seedlings have been infected but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

Anyone else have any ideas how to fight these bastards? I'm all ears!

Click to expand...

if your plants arent flowering ,why not try some fungicide,diease really start from there if you dig,i have had same issue with bugs ,not those but others,i started hitting the vegging plants before green up,think you know what that means ,but i mention it anyway,green up is when your slow moving it seems plant just go dormant kinda ,just seem to all sudden stop growth,last a week or so in my observation,this is best time for fungicide,then all in a matter of a day that bitch will grow seems like 3inchs,corn is the worst for this,it love water and nitrogen,it pops the ground and gets right around 4in tall and then just stops,had it go as long as 2 weeks,so i be rushing out there in heat of day to water and pretty much just cool the plants off,next morning the damn things grew a foot over night,no joke it really does,that is green up,from that point you start counting the rims of the plant and new growth ,look like collars for the leaf,first one is V1,vegative 1,then each collar from there is a new leave,when you get to V5 fungicide one last time,most times V5 is were the cob comes out,most plants,not all put on 2 ears,when you get 3 ears keep some of that strain,just let it die and harvest the corn seeds,back ontrack,when you get to V5 spray again,if you have 2 ears V5 to V7,you want right between,from that point it then starts R1 reproduction stage,this is when you apply insecticide,right when you see the tassle opening up ,the male part of the plant,spray your insecticide,after that your done unless you spray the soil,the fungicide stops diesae,the insecticide rools down the whole stalk from outside to inner parts of leaves,ear wigs and corn worms are relentless bastards,if you want good corn you have to stay on top of it as mentioned,there is small windows to do it all,if you dont,you will have pretty ears and shuck them bastards to find the corn worm and earwigs went right threw the solk and make a hay day of your corn,doesnt harm ,but half ear is ugly and non saleable,i think you should try it with the scaling couldnt hurt,that would tear me up finding on fruit trees ,pot oh hell i grow more,fruit big bummer when it take a full year to harvest if you dig

you know you got my intrest,im a young fellow ,took a min,i do remember our fruit trees as a kid,every year i had to freshen the white paint on tree trunks,the heat be so bad the trunks would ooz sap and the trees would sun blister,i always thought it was from keeping ants off trees,maybe scaling was it,all pecan trees and fruit trees got a coat of paint,tag im it,GO PAINT,like it or not,hated farm hand,turned out gardener hahahah aint that the shitslmao

oldskol4evr said:

you know you got my intrest,im a young fellow ,took a min,i do remember our fruit trees as a kid,every year i had to freshen the white paint on tree trunks,the heat be so bad the trunks would ooz sap and the trees would sun blister,i always thought it was from keeping ants off trees,maybe scaling was it,all pecan trees and fruit trees got a coat of paint,tag im it,GO PAINT,like it or not,hated farm hand,turned out gardener hahahah aint that the shitslmao

Click to expand...

There's just something special about working the ground and producing your own crops. My tomatoes and peppers and all I've grown has been way better then any I can buy. And the smoke? No need to buy some mass produced and over priced bud.

Everything I'm reading on these say to be careful of the beneficial insects.

I just used some rubbing alcohol on a cotton swab and removed a bunch off the lemon tree.

I'll keep a bottle of the alcohol and swabs in the greenhouse and lightly dust with sulfur. I want to avoid using neem oil on my babies.