Scale on Anthuriums



A day after discussing with my wife how we have been lucky to have never 
had any serious problems with pests in our ever-growing collection of 
plants, I found leaf scale all over one of my Anthurium clairnervium. 
These things must multiply exponentially in a short period of time, as I 
figured I would have noticed them before it became as bad as it is 
currently.They are all over the plant's leaves and petioles. I consider 
myself lucky in that the affected plant is on my desk at work, 18 miles 
away from my home and greenhouse containing all my more treasued Aroids. 
Until now, I have never needed to treat plants with insecticide, and I 
was curious what other list members would recommend for sucessful 
treatment of scale on an Anthurium.

Aside from what insecticides work best, I would be curious to know if 
different species of leaf scale are host specific to the genera of 
plants they feed on.. I ask because up until now I had a small 
Philodendron williamsii sitting right next to the affected Anthurium, 
with leaves touching. I searched the entire plant over, and could not 
find one scale on the Philodendron. Nothing on any of my other aroids 
and non-aroids in the office either.

Thanks for any replies on solutions to this probem.  I am thankful that 
the affected plant is isolated from my main collection, and I can't 
imagine what it would be like to have a problem like this spread in my 
greenhouse. I am definately going to get more serious with putting new 
aquisitions in quarantine prior to mixing them with my other valuables. 

Adam Black
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