snails?

14 years ago

I noticed maybe 10 or so on a Pinus sylvestris 'Gold Coin', a recent transplant from last fall. Any cause for concern either for this plant or them spreading? They were all hugging needles and lots of ants were crawling around. Perhaps systemic or a spray to knock them down?

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Comments (5)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
14 years ago
that is scale ... google fletchers scale ...

there are organic fixes.. spraying with hort oil at extremely precise times of the year.. to kill the babes ...

i use BAYER systemic.. one application.. and it will kill them all.. and protect for a year [which means it will kill the next generation] ...

and most likely will never be needed again on that pine.. at least in my experience ... though you should take care to look at your other plants ...

they can suck the life out of a small plant... you must take action.

ken
midwest_dave
Original Author
14 years ago
Super, these little buggers look so much like small snails I hadn't considered scale. One website (penn state?) said fletchers scale was sometimes called arborvitae soft scale. Not 10' behind this is a row of arbs, never had a problem with scale on them, just bagworms which haven't been a problem for years. Other than fruit tree sprays and the systemic I don't really spray much but I'm going nuclear on these.

Conifer shopping from the couch is looking better than ever with this one getting scale and losing the 'Niagara Falls', at least the other 2 RFWP conifers are doing OK. Instead of an 8 hour roundtrip drive, I'll make the 8 second commute from the coffee pot in the kitchen to the office desk.

thanks,

Dave
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midwest_dave
Original Author
14 years ago
A follow-up to my hastily written, caffeine induced post..

Thanks Ken for helping narrow the ID, I furthered it to Pine Tortoise Scale which seems to prefer Pinus sylvestris and a few other pines. Looks like it won't be much of a threat to nearby spruce and arbs. I picked the tree clean, its small, maybe 2-3', and only found 10-20. They all got bagged and thrown in the garbage and I applied the systemic I already had on hand.

Rich has a great nursery and I don't think this scale is typical with his plants. The 'Niagara Falls' loss was my own fault for not putting it in a place where I see it every day and not walking by that area enough to check on it (can I put some blame on the WARM and DRY spring? nah I should have known better...). My local nursery has greatly expanded their conifers, carrying a lot of the stuff I drove so far to get. The RFWP trip was a lot of fun and where I bought my 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th conifers. Live and learn on driving 4 hours one way for stuff available locally.

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
14 years ago
I picked the tree clean

==>> just hope the next generation of crawlers werent out early due to the warm spring ... if so.. they will be back.. unless your spray did its job ..

regardless ... the systemic will be phase two.. should you have failed ...

what spray did you use for scale???

ken
midwest_dave
Original Author
14 years ago
I was going to wait and spray an insecticide when they're crawling but now I'm thinking I should mix up some oil and put that on now. Bunch of rain finally coming, 2+ inches by Sunday night, so maybe I'll wait until early next week when I'll have 48 hours dry. And if some survive the oil, I have the insecticide ready (carbaryl or permethrin) and if some survive all that, the systemic will be in the needles by then.

Shouldn't be any problems with summer strength oil applied on candles and new needle growth?

Dave