During the summer, we had ivy growing out a couple of our boxwoods. We thought it was poison ivy, so we decided to spray it with brushbegone. Bad idea! It killed one side of the shrub. Is it permanently dead or can it be revived? We were thinking about pulling them out anyway because there's one that looks like the roots are pushing our walkway up, creating cracks. But if we do this, I'm afraid our whole walkway might be pulled up with the shrubs. What a major task this will be! Input appreciated!

I never could keep a boxwood alive -- they always tend to go crispy brown on me, like the plants in your photos. I don't have enough experience with boxwoods, or shrubs in general, to tell you to dig and toss your plants, though. They may be suffering from something that is easily fixed (or not), but I'd suggest you post your photos and maybe a bit more information about their growing conditions, etc., over in the Garden Clinic (aka Pests & Diseases forum). The folks over there have been most helpful in diagnosing a variety of problems I've had with plants in my garden over the last couple of years. Good Luck ~ Renee

The standard treatment for scale on shrubs for as far back as I can remember has been to spray them with dormant oil during the dormant season . Timing is important. Nowadays they have a superior form of dormant oil that is a superfine summer-weight dormant oil product that is not supposed to damage plants if sprayed during the non-dormant season. It is more lightweight and makes a tiny mist-light spray that suffocates the scale (as does the more heavyweight regular dormant oil). As for organic controls, you cannot mix organics with the use of pesticides because regular spraying of broad-spectrum pesticides kills off the beneficial insects that would be helping control the scale. So, if you want to use an organic approach, you have to stop using the broad-spectrum pesticide and wait for the population of beneficial insects to return. If you already have a heavy scale infestation, I don't know if the plants could survive long enough for the beneficial insect population to rebuild. It can take months to years once the beneficials have been killed off before they can rebuilt to a large enough population to make a difference. I'll find and link the nice long document you crave that tells you all about scale and its control, both organic and synthetic. As for the butterfly vs. mosquito issue, I just keep a flat pan (filled with rocks) out for the butterflies whenever it is dry here. I also keep a mud puddle going for them. I don't worry too much about mosquitoes in wet years---they are going to be everywhere anyway no matter what I do or don't do as some of them can travel up to a mile. Usually we have enough predators around (bats, purple martins, dragonflies, etc.) that even though I see mosquitoes I really don't get bitten very often. Maybe the predators are getting the mosquitoes before they get me. Good luck with your scale issues. Dawn MOBOT: Euonymous Scale

im with lacey on this one .... are you in denial about midwest april weather.. or did it somehow miss you .. and keep in mind .. the damage could have happened before you brought it home ... and the transplanting did not help ... that of course is an extreme stress ... ken