Magnolia Scale and Pam

gap134

I have a Magnolia tree on the east side of my house and Star Magnolia bushes in the front of my house. From time to time I have problems with Magnolia scale. Then I'll use Volck Oil spray in the Fall and the Spring to get rid of the scale bugs. I haven't had any Magnolia scale problems for a couple of years.

While trimming my Star Magnolia, I found some scale bugs. I go to my garage to get my Volck Oil spray and I am out of it. I go to my local hardware store and they don't have any. I go home, and started thinking, what if I just sprayed the spots with the scale bugs with Pam cooking oil. I sprayed the 10 spots I had the scale bugs with Pam cooking oil. 5 days later, the scale bugs are all dead and falling off.

Ann

Hi Gap123
Can you tell me what the scale looks like.

This is my first time so please be nice to me too

Eric Frei

Well, this is real simple to answer.

The bugs are dead because they suffocate. The oil coats them and they cant get oxygen and die.

The volck product is like 97% petrolium oil and 3% other petrolium byproducts and crap.

At least Pam's oil is from plants like canola etc, same principal. Most use some type of Hort oil for this as it does dilute with water.

What you have to watch is that plants have lenticils in the bark which allow gaseous exchange, a liberal coating of Pam's oil (undiluted and thicker than Volck's after dilution) could create issues. So, get some hort oil, and hose down the plants a few days after spraying to get rid of the oil and the dead bugs.

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