Pest · 39

Scale across the plant library

39 of the 505 plant guides in this library name scale among their pests. Every one is listed below, linked to its guide and grouped by the kind of plant it is, so you can see at a glance which corners of a garden it turns up in.

This is the library read down a column instead of across a row. Each plant guide names its own pests; nobody publishes the other view — which of the plants you actually grow share one, and whether the timing they record agrees.

The 39 plants that list scale

Grouped by plant type. Where the library attached a note to the entry — “rare”, “on seedlings”, “in wet clay” — that note is printed next to the plant, verbatim, because two plants can name the same pest and mean opposite things by it.

trees13

shrubs6

vines2

perennial1

PineappleAnanas comosus

succulents3

cactus1

Dragon Fruit (Pitaya)Selenicereus undatus

houseplants13

Where it concentrates

Botanical families with more than one affected plant in the library, counted from the same 39 guides above. 7 of 39 are Rutaceae.

Rutaceae7 plants
Asparagaceae3 plants
Moraceae3 plants
Oleaceae3 plants
Aquifoliaceae2 plants
Araceae2 plants
Lauraceae2 plants
Magnoliaceae2 plants

How the library qualifies it

Every distinct note the guides attach to an entry for scale, verbatim, with how many plants carry it. The other 35 guides list it bare, with no qualifier at all.

minor
on frond undersides
rare
the potted-bay curse

Shared timing — and where it doesn’t agree

Shared wording“oil for scale”

9 of the 14 recorded scale timings in this library contain that exact phrase. That is a count of what the guides say, not a recommendation — the entries themselves are below, unedited, and the label on whatever you use governs the rest.

Quoted verbatim from the spray-timing fields of the guides that name scale. Another 15 of the 39 record a program aimed at a different problem; those stay on their own guides.

Bay Laurel
Growing
Dab scale with alcohol swabs; check leaf undersides monthly indoors.
Calamondin Orange
Growing
Oil for scale; check monthly indoors.
Common Lilac
Dormant
Dormant oil if scale builds.
Grapefruit
Growing
Oil for scale; certified stock in FL/CA/TX.
Kumquat
Growing
Horticultural oil for scale.
Lime
Growing
Oil for scale.
Mandarin / Tangerine
Growing
Oil for scale.
Orange
Dormant
Horticultural oil in late winter for scale.
Growing
Oil for scale; buy certified disease-free stock in citrus states.
Osmanthus
Growing
Horticultural oil for scale if needed; improve drainage.
Saucer Magnolia
Dormant
Horticultural oil for magnolia scale.
Growing
Oil for scale.
Yaupon Holly
Growing
Horticultural oil only if scale is heavy.
Yuzu
Growing
Oil for scale.

Timing only — the label is the law

This page reports when the guides in this library say to watch for scale and when a treatment is worth considering. It is not a recommendation to apply any product. Read and follow the product label before you spray — under federal law the label is the legal instruction, and using a pesticide against it is illegal.

Check the pre-harvest interval. Every product that’s cleared for an edible crop sets a minimum number of days between spraying and picking. Find it on the label before you spray anything you intend to eat.
Check the re-entry interval before you or anyone else works in the treated area again, and use the protective equipment the label names.
Confirm the product is registered for your crop in your state. This page groups many different crops together, and a product legal on one of them is not legal on all of them — state registrations differ too. Your state pesticide agency or local extension office can confirm both.
Rates and mixing instructions come from the label, never from us. We don’t publish them because they differ by product and formulation.

What else these plants get

Counted over the same 39 guides: the other problems most often listed on a plant that lists scale. These are co-occurrences in the library’s own records, not a claim that one causes another.