I was gifted this umbrella plant around Thanksgiving and didn't notice any pests or this on the stem at the time. Is scale? What can I do to get rid of it if so?
that is scale and it’s a bitch to get rid of. you should physically remove as much as you can using a dilute dish soap/iso alcohol mixture and gentle scrubbing. then, you will have to entirely replace the soil and wash the roots. the plant will then enter a state of shock and you may have to wait to see if it survives this treatment. once the plant is recovered from shock, you will likely notice that there are still some scale bugs on there, as they are extremely resilient and pernicious. use a systemic pesticide that you add to its water, and that should do the trick. inspect any other plants very closely, especially in the nooks and crannies of the branch nodes.
If you gently scratch one off and it doesn’t leave a wound on the plant then yes it’s scale. Schefflera also get brown bumps along their stems but this seems excessive
_Fengo
As someone who’s currently battling scale, this looks like it to me. Only one of my plants got it so far, thank goodness. I used rubbing alcohol, and a q-tip to first drench every one of them in the alcohol. Every one of them I could find. Then I picked every one I could find off. Then I wiped the whole plant in rubbing alcohol again. Then I misted it down with a rubbing alcohol/water/dish soap mix. I lost a couple leaves doing this, but the plant isn’t getting full sun so it doesn’t get burnt.
Now I switched to systemic altogether, as I can’t swap out the dirt, it’s the middle of winter. So far, so decent… only a couple of them on there, which I still dab with rubbing alcohol.
I had to find a way to kill these pests while only touching them as little as possible, as bugs of any kind make me want to vomit. But so far, I’m not doing terrible.
6 Comments
Yes
that is scale and it’s a bitch to get rid of. you should physically remove as much as you can using a dilute dish soap/iso alcohol mixture and gentle scrubbing. then, you will have to entirely replace the soil and wash the roots. the plant will then enter a state of shock and you may have to wait to see if it survives this treatment. once the plant is recovered from shock, you will likely notice that there are still some scale bugs on there, as they are extremely resilient and pernicious. use a systemic pesticide that you add to its water, and that should do the trick. inspect any other plants very closely, especially in the nooks and crannies of the branch nodes.
Yes.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/scale-insects
If you gently scratch one off and it doesn’t leave a wound on the plant then yes it’s scale. Schefflera also get brown bumps along their stems but this seems excessive
As someone who’s currently battling scale, this looks like it to me. Only one of my plants got it so far, thank goodness. I used rubbing alcohol, and a q-tip to first drench every one of them in the alcohol. Every one of them I could find. Then I picked every one I could find off. Then I wiped the whole plant in rubbing alcohol again. Then I misted it down with a rubbing alcohol/water/dish soap mix. I lost a couple leaves doing this, but the plant isn’t getting full sun so it doesn’t get burnt.
Now I switched to systemic altogether, as I can’t swap out the dirt, it’s the middle of winter. So far, so decent… only a couple of them on there, which I still dab with rubbing alcohol.
I had to find a way to kill these pests while only touching them as little as possible, as bugs of any kind make me want to vomit. But so far, I’m not doing terrible.
!scale