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I need help with scale!

I have one Nepenthes Rafflesiana that's growing great, but about a month ago I noticed SCALE on it! I've been scraping them off, but I went on vacation for a week and they came back with gusto while I was gone. Since I got aphids on 2 Sarrs around the same time I've decided to use Orthene or something, but first I'm wondedring if something cheaper would work, like 90% alchohol. The smallest bottle of Orthene I could find was $20, and I don't want to spend that much $$ on three plants! Can you please post what works for you in killing scale and/or aphids, all help will be appreciated! Also, if anyone knows where I can get a cheap($10-$15) bottle of Orthene, I'd definitely prefer that. Thank you!

Aslan
 
okay! I have had 2 types of scale issues on my plants. On my neps I have only used 90% alcohol dipped q tips to manually remove the scale as I find it. It calls for a careful and regular inspection of the plants...but it seems to work. On the other hand, my heli that was covered with scale recovered very well after using Bayer's rose and garden insect killer.
 
A few years back, I found some scale on my outside Cephs & tried the manual removal process. Enough of them survived to infest many other plants including VFTs & Sarrs. Used one of the systemics and eliminated them (2 spaced applications to get hatched eggs, etc). Most of these critters are like roaches - by the time you notice a few - there are gazillions that you don't see .....
 
the problem with alcohol is it doesnt get the eggs, so you may never be rid of scale using it, you just keep their numbers down......i would just use the Orthene
 
Thanks guys! I'll look for some Orthene. Would the 90% alchohol take care of aphids, since I think they give birth to live young? I thought I read that somewhere......
While we're on the subject of pests & things, I got some damp off mold on D. Aliciae and Pinguicula lusitanica seedlings. I think I read that 1:1 Hydrogen Peroxide and water can take care of that, but I want to make sure so I don't wipe out the only Ping I haven't managed to kill so far.... Any thoughts on that??
Thanks!
Aslan
 
http://www.naturescontrol.com/ is a natural pest control business her in Oregon that specializes in beneficial insects, and other methods. They have an identification guide for pests which can be very helpful. The owner told me that scale is actually not killed by the rubbing alcohol. She said it actually dries the scale, which is like a tiny tent or hard shell/shield, but check their site, don't take my word.
 
basically all alcohol does is...it dries the scale up....and the still wet Q tip picks up the dried scale off the plant. This is what I noticed. I also agree that I am skeptical of the alcohol directly killing the scale insect itself. But anyways....its a great technique to lower the number of adult scales. I recommend doing this to first get the numbers down. Then once you get orthene....do what I did.... do the alcohol q tip treatment to remove as much scale as you can....unpot the plant...check roots for any scale that you can see....drench the plant in the orthene solution or spray it well to dripping. I personally left the plant in the drench for 20 min. Then I removed it...repotted it into fresh media. I found it to be very successful. Now....different species of neps are sensitive to different things. SOme of the hairy leaf neps and softer leaf neps like hamata have papery leaves which can be very very sensitive to alcohol. So be careful.
 
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