This is a tissue culture Olympian.  Bought it two of them late last year and kept them inside.  This one is about 8 or 9 inches tall and very thin.  The other is smaller.  Just went to water and found this.  The other only had one on the stalk and I scraped it off.  Moist and red inside.  Is it scale?  Any ideas of what it is and what to do about it?

        

Scale, bad case too.

It's been sitting there for months without any issues.  Where the heck does this stuff come from?  

Should I just get rid of the plant or is it salvageable? How should I treat it?

Here's a recent thread: http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/scale-attack-6723589?pid=1285959792#post1285959792

I've had an outbreak on one of my indoor figs.  See post #28 for what I used to treat it.

Steve - I'll do the same now.  Did it work?

It's probably too early to say whether it worked.  However, the fig still seems relatively healthy (i.e. the spray doesn't seem harmful to the fig) and I haven't seen any new scale activity since I sprayed last weekend.  So far, so good.  You might start by using isopropyl alcohol full strength with a q-tip swap and remove all the scales on the trunk.  Then spray the whole plant with the alcohol/water/detergent mix.

Did you pick the scale off or use the Q-Tip?

Make sure that you don't have ants, either. They transport scale into your plants, and then feed off of the sweet secretion.

Scale. The plant will loose it's leaves untreated but will regrow them when you have killed all of the scale.
There was a thread on this last week with alike how to get rid of them.

Pick all of them off asap. Spray with the rubbing alcohol, water, soap mix. Repeat until gone

Malathion will kill them. You will have to spray it outdoors. Home Depot has squirt bottle and concentrate.

Danny, I didn't have as many scales as you but for the fully formed scales (dark and "crisp") I just picked them off by hand.  Then I went over the smaller scales (light colored) and remnants with a q-tip saturated with isop. alcohol.  Then a couple days later I totally sprayed the plant (including under the leaves) with the mix described in post 28 of the other thread.

Thanks, Steve and everyone else.  Will post the results.

I'm real sorry you have to deal with this, I hope for the best, I'm sure all will be fine.

I've never seen Scale before, I don't think we have any in Colorado or I'm just super lucky, thank you for sharing the pics.  This will help me ID them on incoming plants.... just incase.  Can never be to vigilant.

Again, good luck and keep us updated.

Scott

 

When you pick them off, can you see damage to the bark? Do they pull off fairly easily or do you have to scrape the wood to get them off? I've never seen them before, just curious. Thanks!

We often see scale with the orchids.  For home use I tell people use a horticultural soap and water and/or isopropanol, water and dormant oil.  It is a pain to get rid off.  Keep treating even after you think they are gone.  Believe me they are not.  You might want to re-pot after the infestation is gone.  Just a few drops of soap in water will do it don't go over board.  You can even use dish washing soap without a degreaser.  Just be careful as the treatment will make the plant more likely to burn (think suntan oil and the beach).  Especially the oil/water mix (shake a lot as they do not really mix but form a emulsion).  Some folks like Neam oil but it smells bad to me (rancid garlic).  Hope that helps.

Thanks richinNJ! NYCfig, best of luck with your tree!

The good thing is your tree is small. The adult scale like you are showing are pretty much immobile so they will wipe off using the methods described above, the tiny barely visible beginning stage of the insect is mobile and that is how they spread and this is what makes them hard to defeat. Anytime I buy a plant and if I find it has bugs, I mix up a 5 gallon bucket with some dish detergent(not antibacterial) and warmish water just like preparing to do dishes. I then submerge the whole plant, pot and all and let it soak for about 15 minutes. The soap breaks the surface tension of the exoskeletons and drowns all the little Bs. After that I take the plant out and let it drain for about 15 minutes and then rinse with clean water. Works great. The only draw back is the plant has to be small enough to fit in the bucket. Your tree having the panty hose on the pot will be great for holding the soil in so it doesn't drift away in the bucket.

Just about all nurseries carry scales and they are just about impossible to get rid of.  Follow Sharon's advice.  You're going to have to spray that dude to alot to keep it under control.  Also, if you see a trial of ant running up your tree they are feeding off of the by-product of scale even if you don't see the scales, they are there.  I spray Physan 20 and a insecticide soap daily for about 2 weeks.  Some folks wash them off.  Sometimes I do that.  If you got citrus, then trust me, you got scales.  I never got scales until I bought my first kumquat tree 2 years ago.

Back in January I sprayed 2-3 times with a mix of 1 part 70% isopropyl alcohol to 3 parts water and about 4 drops dishwashing detergent to 1-2 cups.  I checked every couple days for a couple weeks and it looked they were gone.  Then on a whim I checked this morning (had a dream about scales, I guess) and sure enough I found two new scales!

Calvin, I'm wondering about the complete immersion method.  Have you tried this with figs and does this harm them?  Do I understand correctly that you don't need to worry about the amount of soap - just add enough to get some good suds going?  Mine is a cutting rooted last fall.  I has 3 decent leaves and the roots look fine; however, it hasn't grown at all since November or so.  I have growing in front of a window and it seems to have entered a semi-dormant state since it doesn't get a lot of sun and the temps are bit lower than room temperature beside the window.  I'm afraid the immersion method might kill the plant since it is still essentially a rooted cutting.  The mix is very loose I am guess that this process could nearly bare-root the plant.  It could be worth the risk though if I can completely get rid of the scales.

Steve - Glad you posted.  I was getting around to posting my results.

I picked off the scale and sprayed the plants with alcohol/soap/water mixture.  When it dried I sprayed heavily with Neem Oil and really rubbed into the stems, leaves, etc.  Also gave the top of the soil a good spray.  Then I sprayed with the alcohol mixture again for a few days and that's it.  Haven't done anything since and I haven't seen any new scale.  Hope it doesn't come back.

 

I've never seen scale indoors, but all my figs are outside, and I've seen plenty there.  We spray with neem.  They love citrus trees, but when I see ants climbing up my figs, I know they have scale.  Nasty stuff!  Neem interrupts their life cycle so they can't propagate, and I hate to cut open a fig and find ants inside!!

Suzi

:-)  Ants love the honey that the scale excretes.  Hope that is a better explanation.  Ants farm the scale.  The scale attaches to the tree.  The presence of ants is the alert to get rid of the scale.

Suzi

Thanks Suzi

My greenhouse is on a concrete slab with cracks that are home to ants. In autumn I noticed ants climbing on my fig trees and soon enough, scale followed. I guess that counts as outdoors. Sort of. I do spray the cracks with ant killer but they just move to another crack.