Am I a silly Billy or are these little brown spots scale? Fiddle leaf fig purchased from Aldi for $15, I’ve never had scale before and I have too many plants to risk it spreading 😭😭 she’s been in quarantine for two weeks getting treatment every 3-6 days. I have not tried scrubbing them off, I don’t even wanna touch it I’m so grossed out by the thought of scale 🥴
i’m so sorry, yes the bumps clustered along the stem (especially around the nodes) are characteristic of scale insects. you can take a cotton swab and manually remove one (or just scrape it off with your fingernail) and if the stem is still green under, then that is more confirmation that you have a problem. you can spray every crevice of your plant down with rubbing alcohol and it will kill them on contact. then you can manually check and remove all of the ones you see. i would follow up with some kind of insecticidal soap or neem oil every couple of weeks to make sure they aren’t coming back. i hope it goes well plant friend!
5 likes Eeeeek! I knew it 😭😭 thank you for the feedback!! I’m gonna kill every single one of those little guys 😤
2 likes
I am super freaked out by scale (for some reason... Generally I don't mind bugs) and my favorite Hoya had them really bad. I dipped cotton swabs in alcohol and swiped every single one of them off... It took hours, the Hoya almost died, it was a whole dramatic thing but these days she's growing like crazy and I haven't seen scale in over a year. You do have to repeat the treatment til you stop seeing them, but you can absolutely get rid of them without ever touching one. I also use nitrile gloves when I'm doing plant care so I guess I'm probably overly careful lol
2 likes Omg I’m so glad you shared this because I was soooo grossed out working on the plant. It just gives me the creeps, and I don’t get that with any other pest! Idk something about them gives the same vibe leeches give me 🤮
3 likes YES THE LEECHES VIBE. They are like plant leeches. Gross. And I'm an environmental science nerd so I shouldn't be bothered... Doesn't help. Still hate leeches, and scale.
1 like
I am not going to sleep tonight thinking about leeches.
2 likes Ugh so gross. I think it’s just human instinct to not like things that feed off our skin 🥴 I’m gonna have scale invasion nightmares
1 like I was just thinking the same thing 😂
0 likes Okay I took all but the top 3 leaves off. I sprayed it down with alcohol, scrapped everything off with a little plastic clay tool I had laying around. Sprayed with insecticidal soap, scraped some more, did more alcohol, and insecticidal soap and went back in quarantine. Should I repot? Or is that not necessary?
Repotting isn't a bad idea, but probably isn't necessary. I did repot my Hoya when I did this, but I could see there were scale down to the very base so I wanted to be thorough. Make sure you rinse with plain water after alcohol/soap, and go really gentle on the light for a couple days afterwards so it doesn't burn.
1 like Ooh also scale can't transfer without contact (plant herpes, anyone??) so quarantine is fine but it doesn't need to stay in quarantine as long as it's not touching anything else
1 like THANK YOU!! I did not rise her off, I’ll do that now. And I put her in a spot where she’ll get indirect sunlight for a part of the day so that should be safe from burn- but I’ll keep a close eye on it
1 like Omg thank goodness. I checked all the other plants I have in that room but none of them touch and luckily, no others showed signs of them
0 likes