crepe myrtle bark scale

[Anonymous]

What can be done about this? Does anything really work?I have 3 big mature trees and dont want to lose them!

[Anonymous]

We hired Davey Trees to address scale on a 29 year old crape myrtle and they saved the tree. It looks great now.

[Anonymous]

My lawn company did some treatments and mine are healthy again.

[Anonymous]

We’ve cut ours way back and they come back nicely.

[Anonymous]

Give it a few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What can be done about this? Does anything really work?I have 3 big mature trees and dont want to lose them!

We had this a few years ago. Noticed it early. Spraying the scale off with a hose actually helped significantly; but I also got something - sorry I don't recall what it was - that you can pour around the base of the tree. Try searching online. haven't had any return of scale so far.

[Anonymous]

I scrubbed off the scale I could reach with soap and water and Bartlett has been treating our CMs. It has helped.

[Anonymous]

We did a soil drench in March and scrubbed off the scale with warm, soapy water in December. Neem oil doesn’t do much, unfortunately. Pay attention during the hot, dry months when plants are stressed. Give plenty of water, and use manual removal of scale if needed. It can take a fully growing season or two to get it under control. If your neighbors aren’t also working to control scale, it may return.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did a soil drench in March and scrubbed off the scale with warm, soapy water in December. Neem oil doesn’t do much, unfortunately. Pay attention during the hot, dry months when plants are stressed. Give plenty of water, and use manual removal of scale if needed. It can take a fully growing season or two to get it under control. If your neighbors aren’t also working to control scale, it may return.

Yes, the soil drench seems to work. I got one from Amazon. I don't love using chemicals, but sometimes you need to.

https://www.amazon.com/Bonide-Annual-Insect-Control-Gallon/dp/B002ITL19A/ref=sr_1_6?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.w9QiFEtVJ7yQ6z6cLcTWEfVHknt1VOlNu7HkV117h3YsETWS6025sKWzjwXJR0O3Fe4_3UHARItHvoOfnehy1dAypu3R1s5Miak4rNVNXuk4L-hya_8T-dU1TPt_xNpX5ToY64qUtvuPmzsaT_eDzS2EwxFS1vV5vuAn5re6MNg9NeVkPqlpPnb86dRwDbvkR9JKoZS0SXNmIVgJ5i2GVCE2PhFyJm75uQVdaOerUJRaWYQCDNvR2yKLzW0E0vn4vPkpLyayMoHeD8fqDlh-xOxnk4WeD1EhEE0EQWVEGFg.GYQHoThWmVwixBIbIhy0HWNIrCRajCIS9_nMSXfsI9M&dib_tag=se&keywords=soil%2Bdrench&qid=1777903261&sr=8-6&th=1

[Anonymous]

I used a product called Safari i also bought on Amazon. You need to do the soil drench at a fairly specific time of year (ie now) to kill the larvae (or whatever) or it is ineffective. We didn't do anything to clean the tree; it naturally exfoliates its bark which eliminated most of the visual impact.

I've done this for 3 years In a row and trees look great. They were nasty before.

[Anonymous]

Like others have said, we used the local Bartlett franchise to treat ours - it took several treatments over about 18 months but they look great now. No more nasty black scale and turning the leaves black as well.