WHB #87: My Bay Tree is under attack!
Imagine the horror. I go outside to my herb garden (for this is also my post for Weekend Herb Blogging, over at Rachel’s Bite) to pick leaves from my Bay Tree to find they’re all covered in a sticky mess and strange small lumps. It’s the dreaded scale insect (cue scary music).
I’m not much of a gardener at the best of times and the extent of my talents is cutting the grass, pruning herbs, and picking berries from the handful of bushes in my garden. When something like this goes wrong, I’m usually stuck - but I’ve seen this one before (and thought I had it beat!).
There’s a few symptoms of scale insect infestation that give it away. Firstly there’s a sticky residue on the upper side of the leaves, which is secreted by the insects on the leaves above. Secondly there might be a fuzzy mould growing on the leaves - this feeds on the sticky stuff (’honeydew’). Lastly, as you can see in the photograph, are these strange brown insects not more than a couple of millimetres long.
Dealing with Scale Insect
The insects are easily scraped off with the blunt end of a table knife, after which the leaves should be wiped down with alcohol. I’m lucky that my tree is still quite small so I can do this - but it would be impossible with a larger one (in which case, chemicals are called for).
Apparently, ladybirds (ladybugs) are great predators of the scale insect, too. I found one in the garden, sat it on the tree, and waited to see what would happen. Maybe my management style needs refining as the ladybird appeared entirely unaware of it’s purpose and promptly flew away.
Does anybody else have any tips on how to deal with this little scaly pest?
Bite This!
June 14th, 2007 at 12:27 am
I don’t know whether to be overcome with jealousy that you have your own bay tree, or sad for you that it’s getting attacked. It does sound like you know how to take care of, so I guess I’ll just be jealous. (I hate bugs that eat my plants!)
June 14th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
I had a bay tree. But I left it behind when I moved. And I got a replacement cutting from my Dad but it died
I too caught a ladybird the other day (well it landed on me) so I put it on my broad beans - but she flew away as well - so looks like my mangement technique requires a little refining too!
June 14th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
I am a huge fan of using beneficial insects for pest control. We used nematodes to get rid of a serious flea problem in our yard. (The previous owners had an ill-kept dog -and- were growing cannabis, both of which contribute to infestations.) We sprayed the area with nematode ‘tea’ — they come in a sponge, which you soak in a bucket of water — and within days the problem was gone.
I hope you find a similar solution. In the states, you can buy refrigerated containers full of hundreds of ladybugs. You simply open the carton in your garden, and they find their way to the food (that is, the pests they’re meant to eat for you). Some fly away, but it’s a numbers game…
June 14th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
I know that you can make an insecticide from nettles that works on aphids but I don’t know about these little critters.
Makes me want to run down to my bay tree - which is a monster, about 15′ tall (5 meters) and check it’s leaves…but it’s raining, again.
Which is the cause of my garden problems…I just lost 20 tomato plants. Some sort of fungus due to the cold damp weather. And they had tomatoes on them….
I’n actually cluelees about gardening - stick it in the ground and hope!
June 17th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
Kalyn: I wish I knew. It doesn’t seem to grow much to be honest - I’m scared to pick the leaves!
Richard: I’m considering “stealing” various herbs and attempting to grow from cuttings soon, too. I hope I have more success!
Anita: Organic is best - but of course! Nothing wrong with accidentally munching a few creepy crawlies on occassion
Katiez: Ouch!! I’m also considering my own tomatoes - but again, I hope to be more successful. Hopefully the conservatory will prove a useful asset!
June 19th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Oh how annoying! I lost a couple of ornamental houseplants to these little suckers a couple of years ago. Our garden is some sort of haven for blackfly and greenfly - they just descend in clouds and try to eat my roses. As roses aren’t edible, they get a good blast of chemicals!! I must say this has rather put me off growing edibles as I can imagine them being under attack and my being powerless to stop it! I remember losing 5 healthy chile plants to aphids back in South Africa and the memory still hurts
June 22nd, 2007 at 10:07 pm
We have the same problem with our bay trees at the moment. That and the fact that overnight giant (and I really do mean giant) slugs come and get pissed in the beer traps and then gorge on all our veg. Our broad bean harvest gave us about 8 beans each… We’ve lost a few tomato plants, a courgette plant broke at the base. I could go on… but I wont. It’s an emotional business growing your own - even just herbs!
July 2nd, 2007 at 11:42 pm
How interesting-and informative. We had some spider mite infestations in our garden last year, as well as some fungi (probably due to the wet and cool summer we had). We found that neem oil worked really well to get rid of all that for us.
July 3rd, 2007 at 1:22 pm
My father used to go to the local gardening center and buy a couple tubs filled with lady bugs. Not sure if it helped, but I saw him do it more than once and his plants always seem pretty healthy….
July 4th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
Scotty - The bay leaf issue must have really gotten to you…it’s been weeks since we last heard from you (you are still blogging, right?). How can I start my day without knowing what you last got up to in the kitchen?
July 7th, 2007 at 12:17 am
Jeanne: Who said roses aren’t edible? Whatever happened to rosewater? (I don’t even know how that’s made…There’s something to check in the future!).
July 7th, 2007 at 12:20 am
Amanda: It truly is an emotional business. My simple herb garden gives me headaches without even getting on to my fruit bushes…
bazu: It’s truly drenched around here now, so I’m guessing the fungi isn’t far away…Still, the plants seem to love it - they’ve grown crazily in the last few weeks!
Ari (Baking and Books): I’m thinking about that for next year - when hopefully I’ll have a nice new house with a big garden and greenhouse. If I’m very lucky, of course!
Shaun: The Scale Insects ate me. I’ve escaped now though, so should manage to be ok
July 11th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
I am growing organic heirloom tomatoes and was really sad when some evil, nasty, no good, did I mention evil potato aphids moved in and infested one of the plants. Grrrr. I had to put the plant in exile, and then bought those silly ladybugs (90% of whom immediately keeled over and died, the rest of whom avoided the tomato leaves at all cost and perched on the plastic tomato stakes.) Finally I got some relatively friendly spray stuff- made from some kind of oil and some kind of icky stuff from a flower that KILLS BUGS DEAD that dissipates quickly. *shrug* These are ending up being the most expensive tomatoes ever- but they are my baaabies. *rolls eyes*
-Sea