Photos for id-scale?

[SundayGardener]

Hello all,
Been fighting the good fight against fungus gnats all winter (I am not winning). I also noticed what I first thought might be mealy bugs at the very base of new cymbidium growths. The new leaves yellow and brown at the base, then eventually die. The pics below are a leaf shot (after I removed the leaf, it's hard to see much) and then through a little carson microscope/magnifier. It wasn't easy but I was able to line up my cell phone with the micro.

Is this scale? or mealies. It sure looks like it to me...but maybe something else.

[Roberta]

Looks like scale to me. Ouch...

[estación seca]

Fungus gnats: Put a strong fan on your plants. The adults are blown away and can't land to lay eggs. Very soon all the larvae mature to adults, are blown away, and your problem is gone.

Scale: That's what this is. For now spray the plants with 70% rubbing alcohol or a solution of 1 teaspoon/5ml liquid dish detergent per quart/liter of water. Be sure the solution works its way into all the crevices. You will need to repeat every 5-7 days, then be very vigilant. This doesn't kill the eggs.

In summer, when the plants are growing strongly, you can submerge them for 12 hours in water with a tiny it of soap added to break the surface tension. This will drown the bugs and the eggs.

[Roberta]

With that much scale, you might want to escalate to the big guns after temporarily eradicating with the "contact" treatments. Expensive, but it works... 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon Safari granules on the surface of the medium (which over a week or two will get watered in, will get taken up by the roots, and also nail any hiding out in the medium ) is a systemic that works wonders. (Neonicotinoids are bad for bees, but bees aren't hanging out around Cymbidium pseudobulbs so they aren't harmed, you're not spraying it, part of the point of using granules on the medium). Likewise works on Catts... one application often knocks down an infestation permanently, a really bad one might need another treatment in 6 months, but that's it. Most of the time, one and done.