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[happyconcacti]

Hi All,


After cutting down my pereskiopsis forest, I found these small white, fuzzy things on the stems. They have a brown dot in the center.

I'm pretty sure they're not mealy bugs, I've seen those before. They almost seem like pods of some sort. I cut a few open and there's a little yellow thing inside, but it doesn't look like an insect, eggs maybe?

Unfortunately, I don't have a microscope.

Any thoughts as to what they are?

Hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

Thanks,
Hcc

[happyconcacti]

I'm starting to think its a fungal infection....not sure though.

[happyconcacti]

Pretty sure now that it's scale.

[TBM]

What sort of conditions have those pere been in for those symptoms to become present? I'd agree it looks fungal of some kind... unsure how you'd go about treating that other than maybe removing the affected areas? Maybe try neem oil?

[happyconcacti]

Well, they've been in a grow closet for a bit. I need to install fans to up the ventilation. Was probably getting pretty humid.

After googling images for a bit, I'm fairly certain it's scale.

From what I've read, treating scale is primarily done by mechanical means followed by a systemic pesticide. After removing the worst of the infected stalks, I went ahead and sprayed them down with:

1L warm H20
+ 1.5 tsp 70% neem oil
+ 0.5 tsp dish soap as an emulsifier for the neem oil

After spraying them down a couple times, I dumped the rest of the Liter of mixture through the soil to hopefully evoke the systemic properties of neem oil. I also turned their lights off so hopefully the neem oil doesn't burn them.

I'm going to keep spraying/watering them with neem at the said concentration.

Hcc

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[sporehead]

We already have some scale on our lemon tree. A few other localized pests as well such as mites and weird soul critters. I'm gonna get some diatomaceas earth for these buggers.

[sporehead]

Ya I'm seeing them on the cuttings too. Definitely scale.

[New Wisdom]

Diatomaceous earth doesn't work too well with scale since they have the wax coating over their backs.  I guess during their "crawler" phase it could kill them though. I had a major scale problem a while back in my grafting room. I used some systemic insecticide to kill them off and it worked very well, but it took a long time to start working.

New Wisdom

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[happyconcacti]

Which systemic did you use New Wisdom? Any recommendations? I'd like to start using a systemic for preventative measures.

The foliar neem oil (as described above) and mechanical removal seems to be working so far. I'll probably do another application mid-week.

Sporehead & marshmellow, do you have neem oil? If not, PM me.


Hcc

[New Wisdom]

I give all my plants imidacloprid now and I haven't had a major infection since. 

[TBM]

Imidacloprid is a neonicotinoid which has been demonstrated to have an interaction with honeybees in which the toxin is shown to be weakening them making them more susceptible to the microsporidia Nosema, thus imidacloprid could potentially be partially to blame to colony collapse disorder. I would advice you find another method of infection control, even if it works well. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2847190/

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[New Wisdom]

That's good to know.  It's actually only my indoor plants that get it in my grafting room. They are the only plants that ever get bad infections.  I'll be sure not to put any of those plants outdoors for a while though. 

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[TBM]

It might be because they are isolated inside that they get infections more easily... is where you live an older building/house? Perhaps it's something in the walls/air??? Pure speculation...

[New Wisdom]

It's just that in greenhouses and indoor grow ops bug infestations can take hold easier because of the easier conditions and less predators.  It's a pretty well known phenomenon that happens with indoor grows. 

[TBM]

I guess with my experience being not as much as yours I've just been lucky enough to not have that happen to my indoor garden to find that out the hard way.... yet... don't want to be jinxing myself now...