What's the best way to get rid of scale
 

So a girl that I know was getting rid of here orchids and offered them to me, so logically I said ya I want the orchids! Anyway so I picked them up today and found out that they were sitting in water so the roots look horrible, they all need to be repotted, only two have name tags on them, and they have a really bad infestation of what I think is scale.

So my question is what's the best way to get rid of the scale? I have read of a couple of different ways but was hoping that someone that has had scale could tell me if one way is better then the other.

Here are some pictures of the orchid that has it the worst of any of them. Thanks for any help.

Yup that's scale. Suggest a soft toothbrush and Safer's soap every week for the next few weeks. Yo need to keep after it or they just multiple. Remove any sheaths or similar hiding places so that you get them all.

Good luck!

Sorry for my stupidity but what Safer's soap?

It's a insecticidal soap that is available just about everywhere. You can buy it ready to use or in concentrate.

Oh ok I will get some tomorrow :D thanks for your help

But first, scrap them all off. Well, at least the ones you can see, which there are TONS!!!
and look in between the leaves and pbs and every possible hiding places you can think of.
You might be surprised to find many more.

Of all the bugs, scales are probably the hardest to eradicate if not nearly impossible once introduced.

I struggled with one cattleya for nearly one year. I tried everything. for most of the time, it seemed free of bugs or I couldn't find any. well, apparently I was wrong. They came back even stronger than ever leaving large chlorotic patches on the leaves and even spreading to other orchids nearby, so I tossed all that were affected. Well, problems and headache gone since then! lol

If you have your collection, keep these infested ones away away from them all.
Scales when young, are highly mobile and even in a gentle breeze, they are carried away to new plants to attack. so remember that too.

More to scare you,
The brown scales you see on the leaves are mostly females. Once they come off the leaves, they will "supposedly" die. but they have eggs under the brown shell. which do not die. soon the eggs hatch and tiny little larvae travel (even flying in the air) to other destinations as well as back to the already infested plant itself by crawling up.

Are they all really worth keeping and adding to your collection? think about it.
just my two cents.

You need a systemic insecticide that is transported within the plants and sucked by the scales. I recommend Dimethoat, an Alkylphosphat, (here in the shops as Bi 58, Danadim, Rogor, Roxion, Perfecthion, I think Cyanamide in the US).

This is extremely toxic but effective !

You need to spray it 3 times, after 10 and 20 days from the beginning, in order to kill the hatchlings = larvae = crawlers.

I've tried repeatedly scraping these things off plants with earbuds and alcohol, but they always come back; I've also tried permethrin (with marginal success). Have resorted to a systemic insecticide (imidacloprid, which is at the center of an "arghh, it might kill bees" scandal, so may or may not be currently available where you are), which seems to be doing the job now.

I've lost quite a few plants to sad, slow scale-induced decline.

Ok thanks I guess this is probably what I have to do to get rid of the things :((

Imidacloprid is easily available in the US under a number of different names.

Despite the fact that I dislike Bayer products because Bayer has so many different products with similar sounding names; it is probably the easiest to get at a local garden or big-box store.
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