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Revving plant with scale insects?
jtu
Posts: 2
Hello,
I'm new to this forum, but wondered if you could help. We moved into our house last year, and one of our bushes seems to have been hit quite hard by a pest. After some googling, we think it is scale insect infestation.
A couple of questions, is our suspicion correct? 
Also, how are we best to revive this bush (sorry I don't know what it is!)
Thanks
J
0
Posts
Coincidentally I've just been tackling the same problem this morning on one of my Euonymus japonicus.
It's a horrible mess so I'm going to remove and replace it at the end of the year. I've never really liked it anyway.
There are plenty of sprays available for scale insects which you've correctly identified, but if you choose that route remember to use at dusk when good insects have mostly gone to bed.
A mulch with compost and a seaweed extract drench will help
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Thanks Peter - is it recommended to cut it back, or will the existing branches rejuvenate with a bit of TLC?
p.s. Apologies all for the spelling on the thread title, predictive text is terrible!
It was the thread title that caught my eye
The problem is usually caused by the plant being weak and the bugs getting a hold - probably drought in my case. You can scrub them off, but it's probably impractical on such a plant.
If you want to keep it then it would be best to get rid of the scale insects and give it a good seaweed drench and a mulch and allow it to recover before cutting it back.
I don't really know how well they respond to pruning as I dig them up and replace with something more interesting. As you can guess they're not my faves
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
I didnt think outdoor trees got scale insects? We used to get them overwinter on citrus when Hubby insisted they went into conservatory, now unheated greenhouse in winter, I have some on an orchid, not the moth orchid, the one with long skinny leaves, thick middle stem, cannot think of name, I picked them off, wiped the honeydie of the plant, but its still stickey, is your tree sticky?
They do I'm afraid - here's a big infestation I had on a 30yr old acer in my front garden.
I used an old shoe brush to brush them off then gave the tree a winter tree wash and no sign of them now
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.