Things i have learned while fighting scale.

[Corvette Doc]

I hope to start this thread to give everyone a heads-up on how i finally won my fight against scale.

My situation may or may not match other infestations of scale, but you should seriously look at what i learned.

My fight was going after the scale directly and i was loosing hard and fast. Then i realized something. The ants around my grow area were bringing the scale in to graze on my plants while the ants collected the dew and fended off those that would eat the scale.

This year I put down 3 types of nematodes in my grow and circled the entire area with boric acid and diatomaceous earth. There are no ants in my grow and more important, no scale.

I hope this info helps somebody out there.

 

[Corvette Doc]

 

[_tessarecting]

Got any pics of the damage they do?

 

[Gry]

The stuff has an interesting cycle. I live in an area with a lot of old citrus. I ended up using oil on my plants in veg. I never got the ants but sure did see the dew for a few years. The stuff lives on different scale time wise. Best wishes for good grows.

I can not honestly say I ever saw any damage other than the 'dew" . I would see the start of a growth start and scrape it off and spray the area with alcohol - that kept it bay, but it took spraying the cannabis with a light oil mix a couple of times to no longer see it on my plants any more.

In my case at least, nothing was really bad- I just did not like knowing it was there at all seeing what it looked like outside

 

[Dawn Patrol]

Take used coffee ground and spread them around over the grow medium surface and water them in. Then take some additional used grounds and add water in a clear container and place in the sun for 4 - 5 days (like making sun tea).

Strain the liquid and spray the plant twice a week until the scale insects go away. As always when spraying, make sure you concentrate the spray on the underside of the leaves and also make sure you cover the stems sufficiently.

The alkaloids from the coffee grounds will help repel and control most piercing/sucking pests like aphids, scales, mealy bugs etc.

An easy but often overlooked organic pest treatment.

 

[Corvette Doc]

I hadn't heard of coffee grounds???

The scale just dies glued into your buds which made me throw a lot out. But if they get larger numbers the dew they secrete will create some very bad molds and mildews. I was told that you would break open a bud and it would be filled with black and grey mold. I haven't seen this with my own eyes but everything i read from several places says that it can happen.