Control Scale Insects on Indoor Plants
If inside plants are infested, you may be looking for a way to control scale insects on indoor plants. These tan or brown shell, sap-eating insects like to live on the stems or the leaves of the plants in your home or your greenhouse. Scale insects can look hemispherical, oval, or flat, and they can ruin a plant and stunt its growth by sucking out the sap. Scales can often be seen if you flip a leaf upside down and check out where the leaf portion of the plant joins the stem. You can also find them at the root of the plant or in the stem crevices, all which make controlling them difficult. The secretions can also lead to the growth of sooty mold, a fungus that is black, in your home. But you can easily get rid of the insects to keep your plants in optimal health.
Steps
- Pick off each insect from your plant or work the insect loose from your plant by using tweezers or your hands and collecting the scales in a towel or paper towel to carry them away for disposal. This works best on plants with large leaves.
- Dab each insect using a cotton ball or swab that has been soaked in alcohol if your plant only has a light infestation.
- Use an insecticide spray or create your own spray using mild dish soap. Results are generally only seen, though, after at least 1 month of regular application either by spraying on the mixture or wiping it on with a soft cloth. Make sure that any insecticide you use has a container labeled for inside plant use only.
- Prune heavily-infested plants to reduce the picking off or scrubbing that you need to do. Optionally, put what you have trimmed off the plant into a plastic bag before you walk through your home to put it in a disposal bin.
- Consider the use of horticultural oil or neem oil to remove scales on your plant.
- Buy a natural predator insect as another alternative. This technique is referred to as integrated pest management (IPM), and all you have to do is put the predator insect directly on your plant. Once the scales have all be eaten off, the predator insect will die from lack of food.
- Quarantine any infested plants in a different area of your house to ensure that your other plants do not become infested.
Tips
- Consider throwing away a plant (including the soil) if treatment methods do not seem to be working. You can avoid the risk of transferring the scales to the rest of your indoor foliage.
Warnings
- Don't ruin your plant or open it to exposure by scraping too hard to remove the scales.
Things You'll Need
- Cloth or paper towels
- Plastic bag
- Cotton balls or swabs
- Tweezers
- Insecticide
- Rubbing alcohol
- Mild dish soap
- Horticultural oil or neem oil
- Predator insect
- Water
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