Combating the Croton Scale

J

Jeff Searle

Well-Known Member
2,354
26/08/08
79
88
South Florida, USA
This past weekend, I treated all my crotons here at the house that are planted in the ground. Last year in October was the first time I used a systemic, granular insecticide called Malice. I used to put the 5 gallon backpack sprayer on and spray my plants, but it took 5 fill-up's and then your breathing all these horrible insecticides. Malice works just like Merit, but is cheaper in price. The scale is coming back, so I figured twice a year I'll put it out and was really happy with it's results.

So, I'm wondering if anyone else has used Malice, or is using Merit, OR is spraying their plants? I recently ordered a couple of extra bags that Ron K. and Rob each bought.

Jeff
 
I forget the name of the Merit Clone we use, but one of our volunteers just gave the liquid drench to all of our crotons at the Deerfield Beach Arboretum. Not a huge collection yet, but about 30 some varieties. As I understand it, if you drench very heavily you might get year round protection with just one dose.

BTW, why do some crotons taste better to the scale than others? Some plants never get them and some seem to be never rid of them.
 
Merit is basically Imidacloprid right? The Bayer product has that as does on of the newly released Ortho products.

I'm hoping the cold winter beat the scale back a bit from central Florida. One thing is for sure, there's a lot less of what it likes to eat up here now.
 
For some reason, most of the Imidacloprid product names begin with "M". Merit, Marathon, Malice etc. I haven't tried the granular stuff but if you are getting good results without the PITA of mixing gallons and gallons of pesticide, that is good to know. For the few plants at my house I spray a strong stream of water onto the plants, concentrating on the stem tips. I have not been able to eliminate the scale but it does keep the population much lower. I should break down and get some imidacloprid.
 
Anyone else using coffee grounds as a prophylaxis/preventative? The crotons get all my coffee grounds and so far no problem. Some of the cycad folks swear by coffee, and a recent post there indicated that coffee also works on aloe mites.
 
Phil,

Last year before I started using the Malice, my wife and I were going to a couple of the local Starbucks in our area for their coffee grounds. I was dumping it by the handfull, but to be honest, I got very poor results and had to give up. That's when I looked into using Merit first and then switched over to Malice.

And another thing, about 3 years ago while Ryan and I were down visiting at Fairchild Tropical Gardens one day, we were talking to Christy Jones who at the time was the Palm and Cycad curator, and she said that they were also using the grounds on their cycads but were not getting very good results.

I hope you have continued positive results, it's certainly alot cheaper and better for the enviroment.
 
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