| I use malathion to treat both soft and hard scale. I treat every 3 days for 4 applications (they should be gone after 2 applications but I want to make sure they're dead). It's not systemic so I spray leaves thoroughly and dunk the pot into a bucket of it. Scale can get down into the base of the plant and the juvenile stages can move throughout the pot so I find that treatment of the leaves is insufficient. Organophosphates aren't the nicest chemicals so take the usual precautions handling it. |