What are these things and how do I get rid of them before they take over my Italian Honey Fig? I squished them and they were "bloody?" They must be an insect of some kind but they are immobile and form a hard crust that I can scrape off but it is not very pleasant to do as it is a bloody proceedure. HELP!!!!
Looks like scale.
But with blood? I mean they are bloody when scraped? How do I cure my figs? THIS IS WEIRD!!!
Scale is an insect. Those are a heck of a lot bigger than the scale we have here but otherwise they fit the description pretty well: hard-shelled insect that is pretty much immobile and attached to plant. If you do a web search you will find many treatments for scale. I usually spray oil.
According to a web search those guys look like "soft scale", something we don't have here. See here:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MG005
which also has treatment info.
Scott
It's not really blood. Scale insects typically secret a sticky liquid which in some species is red.
Never had such a problem. Have had scale on my mango tree but it cleared up after a few treatments of copper fungicide. Think it will work on my fig tree??
Just read Scotts hyperlink again and if my copper spray fails I'll use Volck oil formula.
This message was edited Oct 18, 2007 9:00 PM
I'm really out of my territory when it comes to fig and citrus trees and the pests you can get on them in Zone 10. I spray oil for scale in like February or March, when my trees are dormant, but I don't even know if your trees go dormant there.
Tplant, copper is for diseases and scale is an insect so it won't help at all. Use oil or one of the insecticides listed in the table on the page I pointed to above.
Scott
OK Scott!! I'm going to try the oil. I did spray the Ortho Bug spray five days ago and today did notice a difference but I will follow up with the oil.
Tilton -- Right! We never go dormant down here and that is a blessing when you love to garden although I would love to grow peaches, pears, plums, apples and such.
Scale can be a difficult bug to cure. Also, as an alternative to scale, they look like they might possibly be a form of snail as well, since they are much larger than the scale I have seen. Copper is usually very good against aquatic snails, so if these are related to snails, the copper just might work. My guess is that they are most likely scale.
Believe me! I will try anything to kill them as this fig, Italian Honey fig, is very productive.
