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Scale

The Sap sucking insects that are almost impossible to get rid of with ‘off the shelf’ retail treatments!

Scale are small sap-sucking insects varying dramatically in their appearance spend the majority of their lives immobile sucking sap from stems and leaves decreasing plant health and making it stressed. Stressed plants are more likely to incur a range of other problems including disease.

The most common is White Wax Scale that looks like white waxy material along stems and shoots between 3.0-5.5 mm long and 1.5-3.0 mm wide and can be seen all year.

Picture: Waxy Scale on Gardinia
Picture: Waxy Scale on Eugenia
Picture: Sooty mould a byproduct of sap sucking insects.

Adult scale lays up to 1000 eggs during summer which hatch into crawlers from January onwards. These crawlers move to a nearby feeding site where they set up home feeding on the sap of the plant. 

It is at this crawler stage the scale is most vulnerable as there is NO waxy coating to protect them, because they have a waxy protective shell they are notoriously hard to get rid of!

Prevention: Foliar spray of insecticide Thiacloprid seasonally can prevent the infestations of Scale. Healthy plants are also at less risk of infestation, so keeping your plants watered, trimmed and fertilised can aid in the prevention of sap sucking pests.

CURE: We have developed a effective spraying program that targets the vulnerable stages of their life cycle during Winter and Summer using both systemic and dermal insecticides.

AFTER SPRAYING INSECTICIDES we recommend:

Spreading compost

Compost carries good bacterias essential for decomposition of debris and soil health.

Natural fertilisers

– Fish,

– Seaweed

– Blood & Bone etc.

Do you have Scale?

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