I have maliation on hand should i just give the tree a good
spray down
or do any of you have other less drastic ideas.

A summer horticultural oil should take care of the scale. That
will take care of the ants. I wouldn't recommend malathion for
scale.

A pyrethrin spray -- alcohol based -- also will work, but the oil
spray is the least toxic.

HOWEVER, test the spray (whatever you use) on a spare larch
first. Oils often aren't recommended for coniferous trees.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Only where
people have learned to appreciate and cherish the landscape and
its living cover will they treat it with the care and respect it
should have - Paul Bigelow Sears.

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