Some sort of scale on my fave Olea Europaea :(

[MartyB]

So i noticed that some sort of scale insect I believed I had eradicated when I bought this tree has come back in great numbers. I just finished drenching the tree in neem oil + dish soap + warm water. The thing is these critters are stuck to the tree, is this the most effective way to try and eradicate them , will it even work? How often can i spray without killing my prized tree to finally dispose of these pests! I found some clusters that were so dense that the wood appears hollowed out around some branches. Quite annoyed this morning, any help will be enormously appreciated! I scrached off with my fingernail while I was spraying as a toothbrush was ineffective as many as I could but thousands remain. Grrr!!

 

[coh]

The adults are hard to kill with chemicals or oils because of their thick coat. You can scrape them off when you see them and treat every week or two to kill the young "crawlers" and you'll eventually knock the population down. I've had the best success treating scale with systemic chemicals like imidacloprid but I don't have any olives so can't say whether that could cause any problems.

 

[Adair M]

You could try a stiffer brush. But brush carefully!

 

[MartyB]

Ill try a stiffer brush thx.

For the Neem oil, i am using 2 tbl spoons of oil and a tricle of soap for 2L of water. internet has all sorts of ratios, any experience to share on a mix volume?

 

[MartyB]

Just saw today that another olive had a half dozen scale attached and sucking the life out, laying eggs probably so i will need to treat more plants.

My first olive dropped quite a few leaves from the neem treatment, I am guessing perspiration is being impeded by the oil. Bugger what a mess.

Anyone ever have success at eradicating armoured scale from a tree? I need some inspiration

 

[Adair M]

I found scale on one of my olives, and picked each one off with tweezers. Then sprayed with insecticidal soap. Checked again after a week to see if I had missed any (found one or two) and sprayed again. No issues since.

 

[sparklemotion]

I had good luck with rubbing alcohol on a q-tip, I could basically "rub" each insect off then drown it in the container that I was dipping the q-tip in.

 

[markyscott]

Most effective scale eradication technique I know involves q-tips, rubbing alcohol, a football game and a six pack. Shiner is the most effective.

S

 

[defra]

Get the hose out and blast them off its that easy most of them will be gone the few left behind can be rubbed off with your fingers than spray the tree with any kind of the 10000 products that are availible to kill this kind of buggers!

 

[leatherback]

Get the hose out and blast them off its that easy most of them will be gone

Not with scale. Regular aphid, yeah. Scale.. no.

I use a systemic insecticide when I get scale. With a number of Yews which I store bunched together in a corner of the yard, unfortunately I get scale every other year. I find two sprays with a good insecticide gets rid of the problem. The bugs will still be on the plant, but dead and drop off over the course of a season. With the scale of your scale infection, I would not go for anything manual. Neem oil I find is very tricky. It took my 10 foot ficus almost a year to recover from the stuff. I will not use it ever again on non-dormant plants.

 

[defra]

Not with scale. Regular aphid, yeah. Scale.. no.

I use a systemic insecticide when I get scale. With a number of Yews which I store bunched together in a corner of the yard, unfortunately I get scale every other year. I find two sprays with a good insecticide gets rid of the problem. The bugs will still be on the plant, but dead and drop off over the course of a season. With the scale of your scale infection, I would not go for anything manual. Neem oil I find is very tricky. It took my 10 foot ficus almost a year to recover from the stuff. I will not use it ever again on non-dormant plants.

Just to be sure scale is (dop/schild luis?)
I have those every year and realy when i take my hose i blast them off and remove the leftovers manualy i have done this a couple times with succes now maybe its because i use the water wand i make?
What systemic do you use ?

 

[leatherback]

dop/schild luis

Yes it is.
Odd.. When I try this, the bark comes off too. Yeah, maybe your superwands are the reason it works for you!
Will have to look up what I use. I can only get one brand nowadays. All the old sstuff is banned from sale in Germany.

 

[defra]

I still owe you one....
Its my vacation now so i could visit you somewere in this two weeks i have left and bring you a magic wand as well work on a tree together or something would be fun!
I use the ecokuur products since this year biological and seem to work do far

 

[MartyB]

Thanks for all your comments. From googling, it appears they might be San José scale as they are yellow underneath the scale.

I am getting a feeling it might drag on, so far I have found some on 4 of my olives, one of which very overrun and the three others a dozen or so each.... so i am in for a battle I suspect . Booo. Doing some looking around, pesticides in Canada are not easy to come by. Hopefully if I can find a product that doesnt burn the trees to a crisp I can treat them weekly for a bit until I get rid of them, scraping off the adults as I see them....

 

[JoeH]

Meridian 25WG systemic insecticide. For a small potted plant it shouldn't take much and its effective for a long time. I used it in a landscape setting and it cleared scale off of Camellias in 30 days or so and worked for close to a year.

 

[petegreg]

Doing some looking around, pesticides in Canada are not easy to come by. Hopefully if I can find a product that doesnt burn the trees to a crisp I can treat them weekly for a bit until I get rid of them, scraping off the adults as I see them....

Then go back to this

Most effective scale eradication technique I know involves q-tips, rubbing alcohol, a football game and a six pack. Shiner is the most effective.

S

It really works. But take it all or nothing. ?

 

[MartyB]

@petegreg i am not going to exclude any treatment believe me, thank you greatly for your input. Does the rubbing alcohol kill the attached female under the hard scale armour? These scale are tiny, 2-3mm across so they are hard to spot. And one of the trees is 7 feet tall, its my cuttings provider..... sigh. Thx again for all ideas and tips I am exploring everything

 

[leatherback]

I still owe you one....
Its my vacation now so i could visit you somewere in this two weeks i have left and bring you a magic wand as well work on a tree together or something would be fun!

pm

 

[petegreg]

@petegreg Does the rubbing alcohol kill the attached female under the hard scale armour?

I'm not sure that, buy it helps to clean and remove all sticky stuff including some stages of scales.