Is your floor or furniture feeling sticky these days?
That could be a sign of an insect pest on your houseplants, one
that you'd hardly notice otherwise.That sticky stuff is a sugary
"honeydew" secreted by so-called scale insects, who typically start
multiplying faster and faster as spring approaches.
Look for the culprit
Even staring right at your houseplants, you'll have trouble
finding the culprits.
Look for nothing more than an occasional shiny, brown bump about
an eighth of an inch across.
They're especially hard to see on bark, and especially with
natural bumps, such as cherry tree bark. (Outdoor plants also may
be attacked.)
Flick at a bump with your thumbnail to tell whether it's
supposed to be there; scale insects come off easily. Ignore scale
long enough and you may soon notice brown bump upon brown bump of
scale insects piled up next to each other. By then,, you'll also
notice that leaves have wilted or yellowed, perhaps even that the
plant has died. Or your feet might stick fast to the floor as you
try to walk by.
Let's offer scale insects some sympathy for the drab lives they
lead. After hatching from eggs or being born live, the babies crawl
around for a few hours or days until they find a place on a plant
to settle down.
There, they sink their mouthparts into the plant and start
sucking. And that's about it for many female scale insects: A few
hours or days of walking around, find a place to eat, then stay put
for the rest of your life.
You'd think that the adult males, having wings, might have a bit
sparkle in their the lives. Hardly. These males don't even eat.
They just fly around and mate - but for only a few hours - then
die.
Controlling the pest
Sympathy aside, that stickiness and those yellowing leaves are
reminders that this pest must be controlled.
And control isn't easy because of the protective shield - the
scale - these insects grow over their bodies. The protective shield
also protects the babies - until they crawl out.
And that's a good time to get them, using various types of
sprays. Various plant-extract oils, as well as specially refined
petroleum oils, can be effective.
Use a dormant oil on leafless plants, a summer oil or superior
oil on plants in leaf. Insecticidal soap also works against scale
insects.
