Re: Scale on Anthuriums


I constantly deal with scale and aphids on everything as we have a nonstop ant problem in Florida... and if you have a lot of ants here.. you have a lot of scale and such.

What you experienced with the plant not infecting others is common... I beleive (from much experience) that many of these things will stay very "local" on a single plant until they are forced to venture elsewhere.

For example I have a gigantic Acalphia hispida plant growing dead center in my landscaping.  It is the most pest prone plant I have ever seen next to some gingers.... The plant can be covered from top to bottom with scale, aphids, mealybugs(God forbid!) and yet the surrounding plants are clean.





On Thu, 16 May 2002 22:47:33 -0500 (CDT) Adam Black <epiphyte1@earthlink.net> wrote:



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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