CpRensCoNY wrote:
For the original writer, one cannot ask a question here some days without a
landslide of rudeness coming at you. What is the purpose of this arrogance and
cursing? You could just be silent if you are unable to countenance a comment.
[snip]
The oil won't do the job either and will make a mess for you that is not
pleasant indoors. Scale occurs all year around. What we do with our bay tree
is be quite vigilant and clean off the scale physically with very small foam
paintbrushes soaked in alcohol followed with a soap (any dish soap) and water
bath. Leaf axils of the plant are hard to clean. This is not failsafe so you
will need to watch and repeat. The first stage of the scale insect is nearly
invisible so it is a difficult problem on a large plant. Scale prefer other
plants to bay trees so you usually do not get a heavy infestation.


The original poster never said the bay tree was indoors.
Malathion *can* be used to control scale insects, but only if you get them
before they form a hard waxy shell. After that, a summer weight oil spray
is the best treatment, unless you wanna use a systemic (like cygon) or pick
the insect off by hand as you do. I've used oil spray to kill scale on
gardenias (or was it camellias?) and it is effective.

I don't think I'd use cygon on a bay tree if I planned to use the leaves
for cooking. It's probably safe enough -- it's not like you'll make a big
salad exclusively of bay leaves -- but it still seems wrong somehow.

Regards,
Bob