ELIMINATE SCALE

By Rhiannon TaylorJune 23, 2020

HOW TO ELIMINATE SCALE FROM YOUR PLANTS

A step by step guide on treating and preventing scale from spreading on your houseplants.

Time

Prep + Cleaning Time: 30-40 mins per plant (depending on size of plant!)

Follow up Time: 5-10 minutes to spot check once per week

Materials

INFECTED PLANT (Our victim is an Umbrella Plant)
DIY MIXTURE:

50% Water
50% Rubbing Alcohol (91% Isopropyl Alcohol)
1 TSP Castille Soap (We like Dr. Bronner's)

SPRAY BOTTLE - to hold mixture and apply to plant. We are using a 16oz reusable glass spray bottle.
SCISSORS - we are using our GARDEN SCISSORS - to prune overly infested stems of leaves
CLOTH (or cotton balls) - to apply mixture to plant and to remove the scale. We are using our FUROSHIKI cloth.

Instructions

1. Identify Scale on your Plant(s). Be sure to check any nearby plants the scale could potentially have spread to.

WHAT IS SCALE: Sap feeding insects that look like immobile bumps on your plant leaves and stems (simple answer). See example below:

2. Depending on how infested your plant is, you may be able to scrape off the scale with your fingernail, IF it is only a few spots. Our Umbrella plant is far too infested with Scale so please follow next steps.

3. Create DIY MIXTURE using:

50% Water
50% Rubbing Alcohol
2 TSP Mild Dish Soap (We like Dr. Bronner's)

***We used 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup alcohol, 2 tsp soap for this Umbrella Plant.***

and put in SPRAY BOTTLE

4. Shake mixture and Spray all leaves and stems on the infected plant.

5. Spray mixture onto CLOTH (or cotton balls) and rub front and back of every leaf and stem on the plant! I like to use a cloth so that you can more easily wipe the front and back of the leaves at the same time.

6. NOTE: You may need to do this several times as live scale can be hard to remove and might not come off after 1 try.

7. If some of the leaves or stems are too infested with scale to remove, it is better to completely prune these areas with SCISSORS and discard them.

8. Make sure to disinfect your scissors or any tools you are use with RUBBING ALCOHOL after coming in contact with the scale.

9. Once there is no more visible scale on your plant's leaves or stems, re-pot your plant into a new container using new, unused Potting Soil (just in case the soil was contaminated).

10. Now your plant should look scale free!

Please thoroughly check the plants leaves and stems once per week to make sure there aren't any scale larvae that hatched or any spots that were missed.