I fought scales for over a year on my mother plant. Nothing seemed to work to get rid of them. Everything I found on the internet said to throw the plant out because, once infected, it was nearly impossible to exterminate these pests.
Here is what I did and it worked:
I snipped off a couple of young pups and submerged them in 2 quarts of water with about a teaspoon of dish soap mixed in it. (I figured young ones would be less likely to be infected and were more resilient for the swishing process)I left them submerged in the water for about 20 minutes. Then I gently swished them around in the soapy water and ran my fingers over the leaves to remove any invisible crawler. After that I rinsed them by swishing them around in fresh water.
I then rooted them in water, with just the bottom of the plant touching the water. This has to be done in a room separate from the mother plant. Once the roots were large enough, I planted them in potting mix, again in room separate from mother plant. After I was sure they didn't have scales (I waited about 3 months, which was probably longer than necessary) I threw out the mother plant, soil and all, and thoroughly washed the pot with a bleach solution. I waited another month or so before I put my rooted pups back in the room the original plant was in just to make sure no errant crawlers reinfected them.
I now have two beautiful two year old "daughter" plants loaded with "grandpups" and NO scales.
I fought scales for over a year on my mother plant. Nothing seemed to work to get rid of them. Everything I found on the internet said to throw the plant out because, once infected, it was nearly impossible to exterminate these pests.
Here is what I did and it worked:
I snipped off a couple of young pups and submerged them in 2 quarts of water with about a teaspoon of dish soap mixed in it. (I figured young ones would be less likely to be infected and were more resilient for the swishing process)I left them submerged in the water for about 20 minutes. Then I gently swished them around in the soapy water and ran my fingers over the leaves to remove any invisible crawler. After that I rinsed them by swishing them around in fresh water.
I then rooted them in water, with just the bottom of the plant touching the water. This has to be done in a room separate from the mother plant. Once the roots were large enough, I planted them in potting mix, again in room separate from mother plant. After I was sure they didn't have scales (I waited about 3 months, which was probably longer than necessary) I threw out the mother plant, soil and all, and thoroughly washed the pot with a bleach solution. I waited another month or so before I put my rooted pups back in the room the original plant was in just to make sure no errant crawlers reinfected them.
I now have two beautiful two year old "daughter" plants loaded with "grandpups" and NO scales.