Life expectancy of 'scale'...?

[The Poet]

Folks...


I should have bought something else rather than neem oil.
Anyway, all plants, clones included, are burned in the wood stove.
Now before I sprout a single seed I want to kill every vestige of scale bugs in my house.

Assuming scale bugs have to eat plants.
There is nothing in my house, not even a clone, so...
If scale has to eat and since there are no plants in my house,
then it follows that eventually they will starve.
The question is how long can scale insects survive with no food?
I'm ready to starve them for 3-4 months.
Eggs have to hatch.
chickens are about a month.
An egg can't lay there and not hatch because it isn't ready...
They'll hatch and after crawling around a while they'll die from not being able to find food.
Even if they breed and leave more eggs... they will do the same, just crawl around till they die.

My question is how long will it take for the house to be free of the dreaded scale...
So I can grow some weed?



Thank you...


Poet...


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[stinkyattic]

You'd be shocked to know how long some insect eggs or larvae can survive. Some, like certain fish parasites, can even encyst themselves so they won't dessicate before conditions are correct for them to hatch.
You can look up what species live in your region, and see if you can search the scientific name and a life cycle query on Google . Im going to go poke around now too because I'm curious

 

[stinkyattic]

Well this gets worse on the ewww scale (no pun intended) and worse but may be good news. Oh and there's bad news.
Cocchus hesperidium is the common local one where I live, and it gets into everything, so I checked wikipedia.
They carry their eggs internally and lay hatching live larvae. There's some good news, no eggs laying in wait for you to find later.
Bad news is, this species can reproduce without a male. One bug can start a whole civilisation.
Definitely see how your local ones stack up.

 

[The Poet]

Miss Stinky...


So... they don't have to eat,
but like the mummy... just lay there for a thousand years...
till conditions are right, like when it smells the 'Tanna leaves' burning...
Then it wakes up and goes kill crazy.

Hmmm... I never had problems like this brewing home-brew...


I think I'll go get me a beer...


Poet...


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[The Poet]

Miss Stinky darlin...


You said "they can encyst themselves so they don't hatch till the conditions are right for them to hatch"

But they are already hatched.
"Eggs are carried under the mother and born as larve".
I can't see how eggs can {not hatch} because of conditions,
but them I am not a larve.

Larve can't go long without food, can they?
How about 5 months with no plant food?...6?

How about not using closet #1 and #2,
but moving 'my grow' to bathrooms, #1 & #2?
and still not growing at all, anywhere...
till 4 months is past.
Grow in the bathrooms for a few years...
Do they live forever?


That, 'in and of itself' would add months to their starvation, years!
Can scale larve crawl out of the closets and down the hall to the bathrooms?
Tough critters if they can.
Did you ever get rid of them, miss Stinky?


Thank you...


Poet...


...

 

[stinkyattic]

Nono read back... my earlier post was referring to the ability of some insects to encyst, not that scale bugs specifically do that, go to the post about the north American greenhouse scale bug.
You're going to have to figure out which species grows in Spain and what its life cycle entails.
Yes I broke down my grow for 4 years and I now pre treat everything with azamax rotating with avid through veg, and a passive dichlorvos emitter (hot shot no pest strip) in flower. It's a pretty nuclear option and of the 3, I think only the azamax is available in the EU. I know for a fact dichlorvos is banned.
One thing that will kill scale dead is imidacloprid. It's approved in EU for only indoor use (lethal to honeybees, save the bees!), and only non food crops. You'd want to give it ONLY to vegging plants, stopping a couple weeks before even putting them into flower, and only as a last resort. It's not as dangerous to mammals as organophosphates, but anything not labeled for food crops should be taken very very seriously.
Azamax is concentrated neem actives and can be given in the fertilizer solution for full uptake, as well as sprayed. It is safe to use even through most of flower. But don't inhale the mist if you spray, wear a mask.

 

[The Poet]

Azamax is available at the grow store here in Spain!
Neem oil smothers insects. Next time I am at the hydro, I defiantly will get some azamax.
{the main concentrated ingredient in neem oil}
I'll wear a mask too.

Insecticidal soap is available, and could be used when plants are young.
In between applications of azamax.
Keeping them inside sounds like my lesson for the year.

But did you ever get 'sure enough' rid of the little pests?
I have never had scale before.
I've been growing since rolling papers were 5 cents!

Thank you...


Poet...

 

[stinkyattic]

I have zero bugs now , scale or otherwise. : ) but I use a variety of nastier pesticides under certain conditions.
Azamax works two ways, watered in or sprayed. I recommend using both methods of application on a cycle, even if you do not think you have bugs returning.
Best of luck!

 

[The Poet]

Thank you...


Poet...


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