I found this blog while checking to see if there might be anything new for organic control. I am a leukemia survivor, so I now avoid chemicals as much as possible in my nursery and greenhouse. Oil sprays, dish detergent and water sprays will all work ..separatly or together to control scales, aphids and white flies. But, you have to work with the life cycles of these nasty little suckers for long term control. Their life cycles are as short as one week. Aphids are Asexual reproducers...so it only takes one to start thousands...and very quickly. Scale and whitefly are also short cycle reproducers, so daily scouting of your plants and frequent water, oil and/or soap sprayings are essental for continued control. For those who want long term control, chemicals do work, but do not use them on anything you plan to eat produce off of. Chemicals that are systemic, that contain active ingredients like Acephate, will be absorbed into the plant and remain active a month per application. This breaks the life cycle as the insects are killed while feeding off the sap. My scale came in through plants I allowed a friend to overwinter in my greenhouse, even though I applied granulated systemic to all her plants as an attempt to protect my own crops. So, always check any new plants for insects before bringing into your home or garden. I would further suggest beneficial insects that will feed on the pest insects. Encourage spiders (ugh), lady bugs, praying mantus, lizards.... use yellow sticky cards to help monitor white flies or fungus knats... I am off to do some serious scale removial off my meyer lemon!

Hello everyone. My dwarf Meyer in a large terracotta pot has/had a severe infestation of scale I caught later in the game rather than earlier. I thoroughly cleaned off the scale by hand and a toothbrush. The branches appear alive but ALL of the leaves appear withered and dried. I fear it went on too long unnoticed. I watered with a liquid fertilizer to encourage new growth. Should I remove all of the dead leaves? Would this encourage new leaves? I did not use a soapy solution nor did I use neem oil. It's been roughly one week. I do not see a reinfestation. I hope I didn't lose the tree and it can recover. Any and all suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you.

I've owned a Persian lime for about 12+ yrs. Scale has been an annual problem after spending summer outdoors. In the past I've used insecticidal soaps, Ultra Fine all season oil, Organocide, alcohol & Q-tips with limited success (more like a slowdown if anything at all) A couple of years ago, a local nursery shared a little known bug killer: SIMPLE GREEN diluted in a spray bottle 30 parts water to 1 part Simple Green which is the dilution rate listed on the label. (Be sure to use the original Simple Green, they've come out with lots of new formulas in crazy colors). With the plant outdoors or in the shower, spray to the point of runoff on the entire plant. Scale this year is especially bad and I tried Pyola at the suggestion of a friend (it contains both pyrethrins and oils) and that hasn't worked at all. The first time I tried Simple Green, every scale I examined had been killed. I sprayed again 2 weeks later to catch any missed or newly hatched. I did not have scale again until it went outdoors the following summer. IMO Simple Green is a heck of alot safer than malathion and systemics which for me would make the fruit inedible. Amccour, do you get fruit from your Key Lime in zone 5? I never had much luck with getting key limes to harvest; I always thought that I just didn't get enough hours of sunlight early enough to keep any fruit on the tree. I gave it up with the scale before I knew about Simple Green.

I have been spraying them and it doesnt seem to be getting any worse...all newer leaves are free from scale also.. ==>> you know.. a dead scale looks jsut like a live one.. the dead carcass isnt going to magically disappear ... and the fact that the ants left.. might be your second clue they are dead ... ants harvest honeydew from some scale ... put on a glove.. and wipe off all the scale ... and observe... and i think.. put away the chems for a while.. potting media.. NEVER reuse it.. its spent.. its not a scale issue ... besides scale doesnt live in the media ... ALWAYS sterilize all pots before use or reuse.. 10% bleach will do the trick ... i usually sterilize my potting media also.. especially if used indoors .. see link ... which would solve your scale worry.. but for it being old used up media ... jsut throw it in the compost pile ... media is engineered from a multitude of things.. and those things breakdown.. and dont do their job properly.. so its not worthwhile to reuse it ... drainage is usually the prime need for media.. and as peat and bark.. etc.. breakdown.. water will be 'held' vs drained.. leading to future problems.. its the predictability.. that makes use easy ... and when it gets old.. you cant predict ... and .. of course.. those damaged leaves will not recover ... but as long as they are green.. they are processing sunlight ... the future is in the buds ... i didnt know citrus had one inch thorns.. i think i got all your questions ... ???? ken Here is a link that might be useful: a lot of peeps here mock me for such.. but hey.. it should put your mind at ease ... if nothing else ....