Ecrane...help!

Ecrane, I know you are really knowledgeable about this stuff, please help!

I am still fighting those hard scales all over my garden, as you know they were diagnosed as "red date scale", and they are SPREADING incredibly all over all my palm trees!

I applied the Bayer Tree & Srub care to the roots a couple of months ago and they are supposed to fight scale, but I'm really not sure if it's working at this point...
Could you be so kind and please take a look at the data sheet for this product? I would really appreciate it...
And folks....if any of you also understand those labels (to me it could as well be chinese!) please do chime in!!!

http://www.bayeradvanced.com/media/msdssheet/TreeShrubInsectControl.pdf

Thanks,
Roberta

The document you have there isn't really very helpful--it is the MSDS (material safety data sheet) and all it does is cover potential hazards that the product has for you and the environment, it's not usage directions or any useful info about what it kills. So it's good to read so that you know what sort of protection to give yourself while you're handling it, but those sort of precautions are usually on the product label in simpler terms.

The way the Bayer product works is it gets absorbed through the roots and then travels throughout the leaves and poisons the bugs when they suck/chew on the plant. Unfortunately, since it needs to be absorbed and travel through the plant's tissues, it doesn't work instantly. How long it takes before it's effective probably varies depending on the plant. But given the way scale spread, I suspect that they were already on your other palm trees before you applied the Bayer to the original ones--they only travel when they're at the crawler stage, then the crawlers settle down somewhere and become regular looking scale. So if you're all of a sudden finding the regular scale on your other trees, the crawlers probably got there a while ago. I'm assuming you've treated those trees now too? I'd do any other that are in the vicinity as well, chances are they could have some crawlers on them now that are getting ready to set up shop. So I suspect that the product is working and the scale that are on the palms that you treated are probably dead now, but the trick is you need to stay ahead of them and treat the plants that are on the perimeter of the infested area but you haven't seen scale on yet.

See....I told you it all sounded like chinese to me! lol!!!
Here is the bottle label.
http://www.bayeradvanced.com/media/productlabel/502802A_label.pdf

You are right, those scales might have been in the other trees before....it's just so much I don't know I can manage! The other day I was so upset I took a rag drenched in Neem and water and litterally scrubbed every single frond I could reach...

The nice thing about that product is you don't have to actually spray the critters, you just put it in the soil and it'll get up there and do its work eventually, so that definitely improves your odds of success vs trying to spray something that gets on all of them. The one question I would have is whether it works on palm trees or not. I don't see them listed on the label, and since they're a little different than normal trees & shrubs there is a possibility that it might not be as effective. Didn't you talk to your extension office about this at one point? If this was the product they suggested then I suspect it ought to work fine, otherwise you might give them a call and ask them whether it will work well for palms or not, I'm sure they've dealt with this particular scale on palms before and know what works and what doesn't.

Oh no! I hadn't even thought about this...about palm trees being different. See, I'm so glad I asked you!
The extension folks unfortunately only gave me some VERY generalized info on this. They basically printed a handout that explains what scale is, and the only treament mentioned is horticultural oil - which of course, is impossible for me due to the number of trees and their size! argh!

I'd call the extension office and specifically ask them about whether Imidacloprid (that's the active in the Bayer stuff) works on palm trees. Also you might try calling the 800 number on the bottle and ask the people at Bayer--I expect that's a question they've gotten before so they'll either tell you that it'll work, or they'll recommend another one of their products that would be better.

OK, will do! I just need to learn how to pronounce it now, lol!

Or you can use the brand name instead of the active, just make sure you're really specific with the extension office because Bayer makes about a million different products and it's important to make sure they know which one you're talking about (the others are mostly contact insecticides where the type of plant you're using it on really wouldn't make any difference). When you talk to Bayer though you can just say it's the Bayer tree & shrub and they'll know right away which one you're talking about.

Hi ecrane, just to give you a heads up. I called Bayer and they said it does work for palm trees. It's supposed to work for any tree or shrub, except edibles. They also said it works for hard scale!
Thanks for your help and the suggestion to call, I feel more confident now! : )
Roberta

That's good news, if it does work on palms then I'm sure the scale you're seeing showing up on other trees is stuff that was already there when you treated your original trees and you just didn't see them either because they were crawlers or because there weren't very many of them yet. So I'd definitely go ahead and treat the next plants out around the perimeter of the infestation, hopefully that will stop the spread.

Yes, that's what I'll do. Fingers crossed!

I'd also examine the next set of plants really carefully (as much as you can without climbing trees and hurting yourself of course!) If you see any signs of scale on them even if it's just a couple, I'd probably treat the next row of plants too. Sort of like putting out a fire, you've got to get ahead of it and do a "controlled burn" so to speak so that you're not just chasing them around your yard.

I'll do that! If that product wasn't so expensive I'd cover the whole garden....

I wouldn't recommend that either unless it looks like the infestation is getting out of control--I look at the systemics as a last resort for when you can't get things under control any other way. Since the pesticide is retained in the plant's tissues and will continue to kill over time, I worry about bees feeding on flowers from treated plants, etc. And that particular scale that you have seems to like palm trees, but I'm not sure that it would bother with other sorts of plants. I think they tend to prefer certain kinds of plants over others so much of your garden may not even be at risk.

Ecrane, I so hope you are right! So far it seems they only like the palm trees...*sigh*! : )