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Insects on Euonymus

johnjlathamjohnjlatham Posts: 3
in Problem solving
Hello

Please see the attached photo of insects on an Euonymus. Any advice to what they are and how to treat them is appreciated. Thanks in advance, John.

Posts

  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    This is a type of scale insect that attacks Euonymous. If you can wipe them off that is best. They can defoliate the plant I hope you have got there in time. I have seen mass infestations but the plants then went on to slowly recover.
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    Some more info here-
    https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/euonymus-scale

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • KeenOnGreenKeenOnGreen Posts: 1,831
    We just leave them on ours.  They seem to go more for our variegated one (Bravo), but hardly touch other varieties. You could try mixing some washing up liquid with water, and use one of those hand-pumped jet sprays, to try and wash/blast them off. I would think a hose pipe would also manage to blast most of them off too, but haven't tried that.

    We always find that our plants recover in Spring, but they do look awful for a while.
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    I agree they do seem to leave the plain green ones alone, perhaps they are attracted to the yellow. There is a hedge of it nearby probably fifty plants. A large group of the plants were attacked but others were unscathed. Now all of the hedge is back to looking good although at one point some of them were completely defoliated.
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • johnjlathamjohnjlatham Posts: 3
    Thank you for all of the information it's very helpful.
  • Robert WestRobert West Posts: 241
    Yeah it's scale. I've had it on mine for a couple of years. The white flies are the young. Later on they turn into crusty bumps that are harder to get rid of. Mine list a fair few leaves last year but seemed to grow plenty of new ones too so wasn't too bad. I used bug spray (which I don't like doing) because I was getting worried by the amount of leaves being lost. If there's a better cure I'd be really interested to know. 
  • floraliesfloralies Posts: 2,718
    I have green euonymus and scale insects do attack them, one bush was so severe I cut it right back almost to ground level, it soon recovered, they will take a good pruning. @Robert West I don't think scale insect and white fly are the same thing, they are from the same family of insects.
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    The white things are scale insect nymphs.
    Later the female scale insects attach themselves to leaves and form a brown shell with eggs underneath.
    I have about 10 ft of euonymus that gets covered in them in summer. It's out of sight, so I don't interfere. They always seem to recover, but get them again the following year.

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
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