Organic treatment
- Scrape or swab visible shells off with alcohol on a cotton swab.
- Follow with a horticultural oil spray every 7–10 days to catch crawlers before they harden.
- Prune heavily infested stems where practical.
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Sap-sucker
Scale Insects
Dome-like brown or waxy shells fixed along stems and leaf veins, sticky residue nearby.
Severity
Identification
Scale look more like small bumps than insects — brown, tan, or waxy domes clustered along stems and the midribs of leaves. Once mature, they don't move, but they keep feeding and secreting honeydew underneath them.
Life cycle & spread
Only the young "crawler" stage moves; once settled, scale forms a protective shell that most sprays can't penetrate. Crawlers emerge over several weeks, so single treatments rarely clear an infestation.
Chemical treatment
- Use a systemic insecticide, since sprays struggle to penetrate the waxy shell.
- Continue treatment for at least a month to cover multiple crawler emergences.
Prevention
- Inspect stems and leaf veins on new plants closely — scale hitchhikes easily.
- Keep plants unstressed; scale often targets already-weakened specimens.
- Wipe down stems periodically as part of routine cleaning.
Commonly affects
Ficus — Fiddle-Leaf Fig →Ficus — Rubber Plant →Ficus — Variegated Triangle Fig →Echinopsis — San Pedro Cactus →Euphorbia — African Milk Tree →Opuntia — Prickly Pear →Euphorbia — Pencil Cactus →Agave — Foxtail Agave →Dypsis — Areca Palm →Citrus — Lemon Tree →Persea — Avocado Tree →Epipremnum — Golden Pothos →Epipremnum — Neon Pothos →Strelitzia — Bird of Paradise →Heptapleurum — Australian Umbrella Tree →Heptapleurum — Dwarf Umbrella Tree →Phalaenopsis — Moth Orchid →Cattleya — Corsage Orchid →Vanda — Blue Vanda →Hedera — English Ivy →Philodendron — Philodendron Micans →