Does anyone know a good natural remedy (or guild) for the scale that loves the underside of my mint? It has plenty of water and compost and manure etc, plenty of mulch, and its very happy except for the scale. Any ideas?
Re: Scale on my mint G'day Paula In the past, when we first landed here (and before we had a chance to work at incorporating beneficials/guilds, etc), scale was a problem on many of the perenials. We used a 'white oil' recipe (the link of which can be found in the following thread), and can't see why that would not work on your Mint: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13282&p=60650&hilit=white+oil+recipe#p60650 Good luck with that, Marko.
Re: Scale on my mint An article on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) from ATTRA indicates that beneficial insects can play an important part in the control of scale. To that end, keeping dust down in the area will help the beneficials, as will reducing wind with barriers, lowering of temperatures and raising humidity, and providing alternative food sources for the beneficials. Soil with too much nitrogen also contributes to scale population explosions. https://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/nreninf.n ... Citrus.pdf Sue