Characteristics
- Scale insects belong to the plant lice family.
- About 0.6 to 0.8 millimeters in size.
- The winged males do not eat any food.
- The immobile females feed on the sap.
- The body of the female lice is covered in a hard or woolly substance.
- This shield protects the female animal as well as the laid eggs from environmental influences and predators.
- Scale insects live in large colonies and spread extremely quickly.
The effective control of lice
Depending on how strong the infestation is, home remedies can be enough to kill the animals.
also read
- Help! Lice on the yucca palm: what to do?
- Help, my Dipladenia has lice!
- Help, my palm is frozen, can I still save it?
Scrape off
This method is only recommended if the infestation is still very low. Carefully remove the pests with a knife, which is immediately rinsed well. However, you can never be entirely sure that you've got all of the lice. There is also the risk that many of the tiny eggs will remain on the palm or even be accidentally distributed on the plant.
Spraying with alcohol and soft soap solution
This is a relatively mild yet very effective remedy for scale insects. The alcohol contained in the spirit destroys the protective shield, the Soft soap(€ 38.84 at Amazon *) clogs the lice's respiratory organs and they die.
The optimal mixing ratio:
- 1 liter of water
- 30 milliliters of soft soap
- 30 milliliters of alcohol
Put everything in a sprayer and spray the animals well several times at intervals of a few days.
Chemicals
Because of the resilience of lice, the use of chemical agents is often unavoidable. Highly effective sticks are available, which are inserted into the ground, as well as pesticides.
Tips
Some plant books advise dabbing the scale insects with oily substances such as paraffin. However, this is not recommended as the oil will also clog the plant pores. As a result, the leaf is no longer properly nourished, turns brown and dies. In palm trees that grow very slowly, this damage remains visible for a long time.
