Dinesh, It what insecticide are you using? I have gone to using a combination of Neem oil 3 table spoons per gallon and two drops of detergent for all my insect control. It is not perfect, but I can spray it with out having to get dressed in protective clothing and I do not worry about my health from contact with the insecticide. You do need to spray frequently with it and spray both the tops and bottoms of the leaves and other plant parts.
It is never a good idea to spray at more than the manufacturers recommended concentration of any pesticide. You could have toxic reactions from your plants or you could poison yourself with the pesticide. Each pesticide is tested by the manufacturer to give you optimum results with the lowest possible amount of pesticide, as a result each pesticide may have different quantities per gallon or liter of water. Good luck controlling your scale infestation. Tom /---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Tom Hillson Agriculture Computer Services Manager |(515) 294-1543 College of Agriculture | Iowa State University ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |"The only thing I have too much of is too little time" At 9:13 AM +0600 8/22/05, Dinesh Fernando wrote: >I have a scale infestation that's spread very quickly to half my collection. >Given the way that I've grown my plants (mounted on concrete strips), it's >not practical to treat each infected plant individually, so a systemic >insecticide seems my only option. I bought such insecticide and made three >weekly applications, but the scale is still there. Since the preparation >was made following the manufacturers recommendation (X ml per Y litres of >water), I suspect the amount of pesticide that I applied per plant was too >low. > >My question is, how much of insecticide should be applied per plant: i.e. >10ml, 20ml ... etc? And how do I know when the infestation is controlled - >i.e. how do I know the pests are dead? > >Thank you, > >Dinesh. > > > >_______________________________________________ >the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) >[email protected] >http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
