scale and horticultural oils- HELP!

Winston Salem, NC(Zone 7b)

I have a horrible scale infection all over a row of euonymus shrubs. I think I might just have to get rid of them all, but I'd like to try to salvage them first if possible. I saw some organic horticultural oil that was sesame oil based instead of petroleum. Does anyone have any experience with this?

The hort. oils seem very expensive to me - $10 for a little bottle of 10% oil, that it seems like I'll need 10 of to thoroughly coat everything. Is there a homemade version that might work? I'm a new-ish gardener and have never used a hort. oil at all.

If it has to have contact all over to smother the scale, should I try cutting these way back- like almost to the ground? or would that just stress out the plants and make things worse? they're already losing leaves.

Any help is very, very appreciated!

Dublin, CA(Zone 9a)

I looked up some references for you this morning and then accidentally posted them on jhart's euonymus thread instead of here...check out the links I posted here http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=6479103

Winston Salem, NC(Zone 7b)

Thank you for the response ecrane3! Very good info. I think I'll remove the worst, prune the rest back hard, and then start treating with the horticultural oils or neem.

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