beware of scale insects.

[billdango]

this is a warning to all forum members who are considering buying a indoor palm tree or any fern species from garden centers .as i was deciding which specimen of c lutescens to get i noticed hundreds of scale insects on the petioles and leaves ?.now the same applied to the two dozen or so of the other palms on the same shelf. many of the leaves were covered with a horrible sticky slime . to bring one of these plants into your home would be a disaster,as these insects would soon destroy your entire collection.
so i say again be very carefull and before buying check every plant throughly.
rgds .billdango.

[jezza]

I only buy indoor plants from diy sheds, mainly because they are cheaper.

[Puremagick3]

Scale insects are a pain in the rear here. Always spraying white oil on my plants to get rid of them. Hate them. There in my golden canes, coconuts, redneck palms, even my Alex palm. Dam annoying.

[musa_monkey]

Only ever had a problem with these on of all things...a corkscrew hazel, but they are a right pain in the rear to get rid of.

[Las Palmas Norte]

Some of my citrus is plagued by scale insect. Very difficult to eradicate and I'm reluctant to use a systemic. They're banned anyway now and I have very little to spare but it may come to that.

Cheers, Barrie.

[Adrian]

I only buy indoor plants from diy sheds, mainly because they are cheaper.

plants dont escape because they come from a DIY shed

Yes Ive lost a few palms down to scale, my citrus get them but it never seems to become a problem on those.

[dino]

I've got them all over my Butia Capitata which has been overwintered indoors. Have sprayed with Provado 3 times now but they keep coming back. The Musa Basjoo next to it is untouched.

[billdango]

another plant that seems cursed by scale insect is the staghorn fern [platycerum bifurcatum].i have a large one of these at the moment and no matter how many times i keep checking this plant and cleaning the dam things off they are back within a couple of weeks .the number of indoor palms i have lost to these bugs is without number . in fact i have given up on growing c lutescens which seems to be the worst of all infected.
rgds everyone .billdango.

[Tropical Bob]

I bought some plants from nursuries via mail order and they bought black fly in with them and infected my whole grow room/bedroom, had to take the lot outside and spray with 2 liters of spray, hopefully they arnt immune to it as some are nowadays, the plants got soaked in it, soil surface too, they are a lil under the weather but theyre ok and growing again.

Never heard of scale insects tbh, my gardens, nasty insect free apart from the odd slug, so i guess im lucky really, maybe i have a lot of spiders

[Tropical Bob]

oh and from now on everything is going to go into quarantine before going anywhere near my garden

[Adrian]

I always quarantine anything and everything before it comes into the conservatory , I also spray any new palms before they go into either the conservatory or greenhouse, Im less fussy with stuff going straight into the garden.

[fgtbell]

Scale like maples (Acers) so if you buy any Japanese maples, keep a watch for them. They are sap suckers so they are presumably attracted by maple syrup

[Tropical Bob]

Maple syrup, ice cream and pancakes... maybe i was a scale insect in a previous life

[kata]

Won't winter kill most paracytical insects,

[Tropical Bob]

explains why i got reborn

My black fly have just resurfaced on my plants again so they are getting a second dose tomorrow! Dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee blackfly DIE I will personally kill every single one by hand if need be, even if it takes a week