Scale - Black, Brown, White.

Scale must be the most annoying insect known to man. In smallish numbers they do no dramatic harm to the plant, but aesthetically your plant will look like a dog has used it for a chew toy for a week.

In my area we get them all, white (small), brown (big), and black (mid) they usually slowly creep up from the bottom of the plant and before you know it the buggers are everywhere and leave hideous scarring.


My question to everyone out there is how do YOU deal with them ?


Please only reply to this thread is you have a genuine treatment/control method I plan on making this a sticky post if we get the desired result.

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1. (HN) Toothbrush/hard bristle brush - Manually brush the skin, hard, with the brush and the bristles will dislodge the scale. Works for white scale quite well, not very good for black and hopeless for brown (these suckers hold on like nothing else).

2. (IXOXI) - "Scrape larger brown scale off with a blade or sharp instrument". I will add to this you can use sharp plastic knives also which can reduce unwanted damage to the plant.

3. (jk) "White oil and a little detergent in spray bottle, and mist plants, and a TIP: don't use aerosol cans as the propellant (usually hydrocarbons) will damage the skin." I will add to this to b careful with concentrations of oil I.E not too much remember your cacti breath from the skin is oil coats the entire skin you may harm the plant. Mix it on the lower end of the 'scale'

4. (HN) Dust some Diatomaceous earth also known as D.E. and diatomite around the base of the plant, this will stop them creeping up. Works extremely well however there are two major drawbacks, Once DE gets wet it no longer works as good, it tends to clump and when it dries doesn't have the same effect. The second is it is pretty expensive !

How do you deal with them ?

I have seen good success using a toothbrush dipped in dry lime powder. Scrub just like HN said.
I carefully lift the brown ones with a blade, and sulfur the open areas.

And as far as I knew, either Barrack Obama or miz Gillard were the most annoying insect known to man...

For white scale I have used white oil, or you can mix a little detergent with oil and water and spray them. I notice that some times it just keeps comming back. I have had better results when they are in more sunlight. Oh don't use white oil from a areosole spray as it burns them, after spraying them with the oil leave in the shade till you water.

Ok thanks I will update the original post with both of your methods I also added a little info from my experience I hope you don't mind.

Any more ?

I missed this thread.

I have had bad scale problems. Mainly a soft brown scale. The toothbrush and soapy water gets rid of a lot of them.

But (and I do have green leanings), when it comes to cactus diseases I tend to reach for the chemicals. And for the soft brown scale I found that Malathon will zap them. I don't use it often, but Ive had pretty well no scale since I started using it.

I've noticed that white oil sprays do kill the brown scale, but they can come back.

Cheers Charlie,

I'm still struggling with the little buggers, they seem to grow in numbers every time I turn around. I have been content brushing them in the past but think I'm going to have to go down the chemical route this time.

I believe there is an insecticide with Malathon and white oil mixed together.

Just a small piece of advice for anyone else, read the label on all insecticides and use the one with the shortest withholding period for fruit, these are generally less toxic to humans.