Asked on May 06, 2013

SCALE ON MY LITTLE GEM MAGNOLIA TREE

Pamela F
by Pamela F
My Little Gem Magnolia tree is infected with Magnolia Scale (like this one pictured). With a plastic spoon, I scraped off the scales. Thereafter, I sprayed it with Garden Safe insecticide and also used BAYER ADVANCED All-in-One Rose and Flower Care Concentrate as they were readily available. Does anyone knows for sure if these will work?
  5 answers
  • Douglas Hunt Douglas Hunt on May 06, 2013
    Pamela, if you scraped off all the scale, that should do it. Horticultural oil is the generally suggested treatment for scale, applied in early spring to treat the crawler stage of the insect (they only move when they are young), and then again in late summer to treat the new hatchlings. You should always read the label on an insecticide before applying it. If it does not specifically list the insect you are trying to treat, don't use it.
  • Pamela F Pamela F on May 08, 2013
    That's the logical approach Douglas, but all I had at the time and was hoping, wishing and praying that one of the two would work, lol.
  • Tony Tony on May 09, 2013
    Not to worry scale is very easy to remedy. You need to apply an Oil Spray. "Volck" or Safer Oil will do the trick. You can find these at most Garden Retailers like Lowes or Home Depot.. If you can find it, I highly recommend an Oil Spray with Insect Control. Sunniland in Florida makes a Citrus and Ornamental Spray which is Malathion and Oil and it works great on scale. Hope this helps.
  • Pamela F Pamela F on May 09, 2013
    Thank you, Tony.
  • Sue Kiene Sue Kiene on May 13, 2016
    Know the feeling. Last fall friends asked me if I wanted to take their orchid plants. DUH. It was too late in the fall to treat them for bugs and leave them in the garage to make sure they were insect free. Well at least one had scale which moved to one of my orchids. Everyone (all the plants) had to be treated, from the lime and lemon trees to the minis. Sadly I lost one of the orchids that they gave me but I was not sure it was an orchid even though they said it was.