What pesticide is most effective for controlling scale insects?

Scale insects are the collective term for insects of the superfamily Coccoidea in the order Homoptera, harming leaves, branches and fruits. The males usually have wings and can fly, while the females and larvae, once they emerge, spend their entire lives lodged on branches, leaves or fruits, causing leaves to yellow, twigs to wither and tree vigor to decline, and they easily trigger sooty mold. Let us take a look below at what pesticide works best against scale insects!

Methidathion

Methidathion is a fairly ideal agent for killing scale insects. It is a non-systemic insecticide used to control pests and mites such as arrowhead scale, Chaff scale, wax scale, brown soft scale, mealybugs, cotton aphids, cotton red spiders, cotton bollworms and alfalfa weevils on fruit trees, cotton, vegetables and other crops. Moreover, it is non-systemic, safe and highly effective, also controls whiteflies and aphids, and instantly kills all beetles and green caterpillars. Its drawback is that it has a somewhat strong odor.

Thiamethoxam

Thiamethoxam is a second-generation neonicotinoid insecticide with a completely new structure, highly effective and low in toxicity, with stomach poison, contact and systemic activity against pests, used for foliar spraying and soil drenching at the roots. After application it is rapidly taken up systemically and translocated to all parts of the plant, giving good control of piercing-sucking pests such as aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers and whiteflies, and when combined with methidathion it has a special effect on adult scale insects.

Silicone penetrant

Silicone penetrant has very low surface tension. When added to pesticide in a certain proportion, it can give the pesticide super-strong spreading, penetration, dispersing and wetting properties on plant surfaces, as well as efficient systemic and translocating properties, especially achieving rapid wetting and dispersion on surfaces difficult to wet such as the waxy layer of leaves, and penetrating into plant pores, improving efficacy, resisting rain wash-off and making the efficacy long-lasting.

Note: The three agents methidathion, thiamethoxam and silicone penetrant complement each other and none can be omitted; used together, they can wipe out scale insects completely. When applying, spray the leaves and wet the soil surface or drench the roots to kill the eggs in the soil, thus achieving complete elimination. The mixing ratio is 1:1500; take 1 gram of each agent, 3 grams in total, then add 1500 grams of water and it is ready.