How to Get Rid of Scales on Indoor Plants

If your indoor plants are covered with small, crawling insects with brown or tan shell-like backs, your plants are infested with a difficult to control insect called scales. There are several types of scale that are common pests on plants; they vary in size from about 1/16 of an inch to 1/4 of an inch and can be oval and flat or hemispherical. Scales suck plant sap, which stunts the growth of plants and may eventually kill them. It's not uncommon to find "honeydew" (a sticky and sweet liquid) on plants infested with scales; this is scale excrement. Black fungus often grows on honeydew.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Sealable plastic bags
• Tweezers (optional)
• Sponge
• Water
• Detergent

1. Remove all the leaves from plants that quickly and easily regrow leaves. If you're unsure whether your plant will quickly regrow leaves, skip to Step 3.

2. Place the foliage in resealable bags and dispose of it in an outside garbage can.

3. Pick off all the scales you can find on the remaining plant, carefully checking under foliage and near the stem base. Use tweezers to remove the insects, if necessary.

4. Dispose of scales by placing them in a resealable plastic bag and tossing the bag in an outside trash can.

5. Scrub any remaining leaves and stems gently with a sponge and water.

6. Create a homemade bug killer with detergent and water. For every quart of water, add 1 tablespoon of detergent (do not use soap.)

7. Purchase a new liquid sprayer (found in the kitchen or cleaning aisle of the supermarket) or thoroughly clean an old one.

8. Add the homemade spray to the sprayer and mist the plant, being careful to cover as much of the plant as possible.

9. Spray indoor plants with a commercial insecticide instead of a homemade spray, if desired. Choose a spray designed specifically for controlling scales in houseplants. Use caution if you have pets or children in the house, as the insecticide could be poisonous to them.

10. Reapply the homemade spray or commercial insecticide weekly for at least a month.

Tips & Warnings

• Scales are difficult to get rid of. For best results, apply homemade spray or commercial insecticide thoroughly to every part of the plant for at least one month. Watch other plants in the same location. When young scales hatch from their eggs, they may move to previously unoccupied plants that are nearby. Granular insecticides designed to be added to the soil of houseplants are generally not effective. Sometimes it is best to simply throw out houseplants infested with scales, in order to save other houseplants that aren't yet infested.

References

• Houseplant Scale Insects
• Scale on Houseplants
• Scales on Houseplants