scale bugs

I've got a couple of citrus (lemon and lime) trees and both have scale on them. I had used a chemical spray on them last year but my daughter discouraged me from "....ever using it again!"
Can anyone suggest anything organic that I can use? You would be helping my daughter and me be buddies again ;(
Thanks, Sal

I know i read that here somewhere just last week, but my memory stinks this week! I have looked and searched to no avail, but did find some new info, and it is in the veggie forum...

here is another suggestion:

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/423445/

And there is another thread in this forum as well... good luck keeping the peace and ridding the bugs!

This message was edited Jun 30, 2005 11:42 PM

hiya roose,

Summer oils or light horticultural oils are very effective against scale insects. The oil coats the insect and it suffocates. No harmful chemistry and for your daughter's well being most light oils are actually made of paraffin and are not recycled motor oil...lol.

A few repeated applications at one to two week intervals and your scale insects will soon be gone without any damage to beneficial insects or your personal environment.

best to you,
Don

Thanks TamaraFaye and Don,
I'm going to try finding horticultural oil (or summer oil) today. Do you just spray it on straight (without mixing it with mild soap)? I had tried hot pepper and garlic tea on it last month but I think I should have used it on my bbq ribs instead, for all the good it did.
The heat treatment sounds interesting. I'll have to dig through my science text to see what 49c converts to in fahrenheit. But I think I'll try the oil first.
Thanks Sal

I tried a number of things for scale on my citrus and finally settled
on a time-release formula of pyrethrum from Charlies Greenhouse.
That worked better than all other organic means I've tried.

49 ce is 120.20 fa

here is the wonderful converting site some helpful DG member showed me...

http://www.hoptechno.com/nightcrew/sante7000/convert.cfm

If anyone else has suggestions, stop lurking and stop posting :-) Let's hear it for home remedies-YEAH!

Tammy,
I'll look for the pyrethrum, thanks
TammyFaye,
Great link, thank you both.
Sal

Hey guys,
I tried the heat torture thing and it worked OK, with one exception, I almost cooked my little lemon tree. A couple of the leaves look like they kind of got damaged but the scale got the worst of it. I have one of those little GHs with a clear vinyl cover. I put the tree on the top shelf, along with a black plastic pan partly filled with water and a thermometer, and zippered it closed in full sunlight. I waited 'til it got to temp and timed for ten minutes and voilla! an almost cooked lemon tree,LOL ROF. Well it really wasn't that funny at first but what the heck it did survive.
By the way, this tree was a product of an air layering experiment. So I'm really kind of proud of it and wasn't very happy to what was happening to it. But now it looks like it'll recover ok.
I'll post some pictures soon!
Sal