Hibiscus Pest

[MTNauert]

Anyone know what type of pest this is? What’s a good nontoxic way to take care of this? Right now a lot of bees are using this bush for pollen. I’m hesitant to spray this with anything, but it is a really bad infestation. What can I do when there’s bees that also use this bush?

 

[MTNauert]

The bush is also dying pretty quickly

 

[YumYum]

Looks like a rust, which is a fungal disease. The fungus eats it way through the leaf almost as if you dripped acid on the leaf and it took a week to eat through it.

 

[MTNauert]

Looks like a rust, which is a fungal disease. The fungus eats it way through the leaf almost as if you dripped acid on the leaf and it took a week to eat through it.

Do you know how to get rid of it?

 

[YumYum]

Prevention is the key with that kind of stuff. I'm not sure which fungicide may work on that but they have to be sprayed before what you see. You might spray it with a 50/50 hydrogen peroxide solution but the leaves will still be eaten up and look badly. A rust disease usually wont just up and kill the plant instantly although it may slow its growth down. Fungicides and hydrogen peroxide shouldn't hurt your bees.

 

[Chuck]

I believe that what you have is either Cottony Cushion Scale or Snow Scale. The white part of each of those "bumps" is an egg sac and will get much larger. This infestation is just getting started as each of those white sacs will each have hundreds of eggs. They will eventually kill the plant. The best remedy is Neem Oil. If you are worried about bees spray in the late afternoon after the bees have left for the day. It is a contact spray on bees so by spraying late in the day it will not harm them.

 

[Tetters]

@Chuck - there seems to be a lot of scale problems this year!! Do you think that scraping the creatures off the trunk and stems might help in this particular case? It seems that a heck of a lot of neem oil will be needed here.

 

[Chuck]

@Chuck - there seems to be a lot of scale problems this year!! Do you think that scraping the creatures off the trunk and stems might help in this particular case? It seems that a heck of a lot of neem oil will be needed here.

I have found on my peach trees that scraping them off damages the tree if you are not careful, especially on soft skinned plants, and when you have a lot of scale, if you miss one or two, you will never get rid of them as they lay between 250 and 800 eggs. One can spray diluted rubbing alcohol @1 cup of alcohol and a good squirt of insecticidal soap to a quart of water. But you have to spray every 2 or 3 days for 2 or 3 weeks. It does seem like there is a lot of scale this year and of different types than we normally see. I haven't seen Cottony Scale in at least 5 years. With Neem Oil you mix 2 oz per gallon of water and a squirt of dish soap every 7-9 days for two or maybe three applications. Some folks use either mineral oil or horticultural oil. It works OK I guess but Neem is much much better. And for all you readers of this post, Neem Oil has a short shelf life once opened, about 6 weeks. The oil part of Neem Oil will still work but the insecticidal and mitacidal properties of Neem greatly diminishes. I don't know about the fungicidal properties.

 

[Tetters]

Cor we didn't realise neem shelf life was so short - so more small amounts when buying then. Zigs will want to know about that, as he has been using neem a lot since he listened to you. He does actually refer to it as ''Chuck oil'' Cheers!

 

[Chuck]

Cor we didn't realise neem shelf life was so short - so more small amounts when buying then. Zigs will want to know about that, as he has been using neem a lot since he listened to you. He does actually refer to it as ''Chuck oil'' Cheers!

I just wished that the Neem Oil makers would put it in smaller bottles. The smallest here is 12 oz and I might use 6 oz in a year I rarely get any insects except stink bugs but I get different fungus fairly often. I use it mainly to destroy eggs and treat fungal problems and the oil part doesn't go bad so it still works for that. It is too bad that you cannot get Spinosad products in the UK as it does a much better job of insect control and worm control than Neem does.

 

[Tetters]

Just like the suscon green we used to use in the nursery some years ago. It dealt with vine weevil - no problems! It was removed from use, and now the blessed weevil is rife wherever you look. I shall check to see what quantities I can find for chuck oil

 

[Tetters]

I just had a look, it seems we could get a bottle here as small as 10ml. It seems that although this kind comes from India, it is distributed from a place called Austin in Texas

 

[Chuck]

I just had a look, it seems we could get a bottle here as small as 10ml. It seems that although this kind comes from India, it is distributed from a place called Austin in Texas

Well, what can I say except what can one actually do with less than a half ounce. I suppose if you had a store close by you could buy just how much you need. I would buy it by the half ounce if it were cheap enough but I would surmise that the little bottle costs a lot more than the actual product and then there is the shipping and handling. A four ounce bottle would suit me just fine. I have never seen a bottle of less than 12 oz so I wonder who they send it to?

 

[Tetters]

I would say that on this subject at least, we are extremely fortunate. I found all sorts of alternative uses for the miracle oil as well as every price and size you could want. I even found neem oil soap in large blocks and unscented, supposed to even make the likes of me gorgeous (that'll be the day)

 

[Chuck]

I would say that on this subject at least, we are extremely fortunate. I found all sorts of alternative uses for the miracle oil as well as every price and size you could want. I even found neem oil soap in large blocks and unscented, supposed to even make the likes of me gorgeous (that'll be the day)

Neem for people...........no fleas on folks in the UK