BruceM wrote:

After reading many posts on scale cotrol, it looks Enstar II in
comobination with Orthene WP would be a good way to go, but I am not sure I
would want to use it on my plants kept in the house around pets. I only
have about 30 pots, all kept in the house, and would prefer a less "nuclear"
way to do it.

At the moment I only have one plant that I can defintiely say has scale ,
and it is in bad enough shape I am just going to throw it away.

Anyone have personal experience with using something available in common
box stores (don't throw anything)? I alwasy keep lots of safer insecticidal
soap on hand for my roses and think I may try that and / or a alcohol spray.


You could substitute an oil spray for the Orthene.
http://www.berkeleyhort.com/roses/_p...traFineOil.jpg
http://www.entomology.umn.edu/cues/cuespic/sunspray.jpg
Oil sprays are probably less toxic that some of the cleaning products
used in most homes.
Common sense would tell me to use the Enstar before the oil, not right
after.
I have completely eliminated scale from one plant (or a few) by taking
the the plant to the sink and just washing it. Regular dish washing
detergent is fine because you can rinse it all off at the end. I scrub
off all visible scale and soap up and wash all surfaces. This is easy
with something like a Cattleya with not to many growths. Fairly easy
with a Phalaenopsis. Not easy at all with something like a multi growth
Paphiopedilum. With a Paph, I would follow up with the oil spray taking
care to get it into the crevices between the leaves.
I have never used Enstar II. It's kind of expensive and I've never been
that desperate yet.

Steve