Re: abutilon Scale

barbara sargent wrote:
> 
> To David, Moira and anyone else who grows abutilons: how do you keep the
> ants->scale off them? I love abutilons but have had disappointing damage
> down to them by the ant/scale combination, leading to the sooty,sticky,
> black fungus on the leaves.
> 
 Barbara 
Though a big black scale is not uncommon on Abutilons in gardens in this
area, the only time I have been troubled with it myself was when I tried
to grow a potted one in my glasshouse. The reason I got it there was
because of carelessness on my part. I had bought a new tropical hibiscus
and failed to vet it properly so it brought in this nasty pest, which
took me years to elimiate completely from favourite hibiscus plants and
other species. One should really keep any new plant in quarantine until
proved clean before letting it loose. 

In spite of the trouble in the glasshouse however the scale has never
managed to get going outside with me. I can only ascribe this to the
fact my garden is run on strictly organic lines with no pest spraying
except organic preparations like compost tea, milk and (on apple and
pear trees only) neem oil. As  a result there are a great many natural
preditors around which deal with the majority of pests which venture in.
The soil is also in a state of maximum health which probably also tends
to discourage pests by keeping the plants in correspondingly good
health.

In the glashouse I finally tamed the scale by a mixture of pruning off
the worst affected branches, picking off the mature scales with my
finger nails and smothering the young with a film of spraying oil. As to
the offending Hibiscus, I actually just threw it out (It didn't have
very good flowers anyhow).

I have not had any trouble indoors with ants, but helped a friend, who
had both ants and scale on an olive tree in an outside tub, by spraying
it for her with oil. Once most of the scales were dead the ants just
stopped coming.

Moira
-- 
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata (near Wellington, capital city of New Zealand)
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