I recently found all my pawpaws were massively infested with scale. They look just like pawpaw buds but these life suckers were killing my young trees.
I’ve never seen scale on any other numerous fruit trees I have. Further I’ve never seen scale mentioned as a pest for pawpaws. What am I missing?
Are you 100% sure it’s scale? Do they squish? Can you rub them off? If so then you’re missing repeated sprays with hort oil. That would be my approach. There are others. Adding an insecticide can help.
@Vincent_8B just posted about this recently over in What’s wrong with my pawpaw.
Someone said it was scale.
I have only seen a handful on my 30 trees in 6 years. I guess I should keep eye out.
Can you post a pic?
Hi Ram,
Sorry to hear this! Can you provide a closeup pic of the infestation? So I can know what to watch for. I just transplanted 5 yesterday and 5 more today at the City park site by the river, a lot of early morning clearing and brush removal to clear out a space. That makes 14 so far in a relatively small area. I still have about 10 that I need to transplant out of grow bags.
Dennis
Kent, wa
Sorry I neglected to take pics. I was so panicked yesterday that I spent the entire evening rubbing off these blood suckers.
@fruitnut I never spray my pawpaws believing (falsely) that they are trouble free.
Btw I have no pests yet this season on any of my other trees.
I will have to pay careful attention to pawpaws in the future including spray.
@Vincent_8B lives close to me so maybe there is a climactic/location component?
@TrilobaTracker @ramv
Yes I just saw it a week ago on my Pawpaw and one of Japanese plum, tried to researched but not much information about it. Will pay closely attention.
Vincent, I just saw your post and pics. It’s exactly like mine before I cleaned them.
I’ve never seen scale here before on any tree. They are much more common in warmer climates. I wonder how they came. I added no new trees this year.
You still need to spray. I’m spraying hort oil in my greenhouse once a month. That’s for scale and spider mites.
I often wonder how scale shows up in the middle of my GH. Maybe on my clothes? I don’t know but about once a yr it happens. I may not see them given my preventive measures.
Scale is becoming a huge problem in the nursery industry, largely due to NOP growers with inadequate control measures. The infantile scale are susceptible to weak insecticides but after a month the organic growers should adopt a rigorous spray schedule with frequent inspections. For individuals that are willing to use an organic+synthesized mix, the Ortho Fruit Tree & Shrub spray is far less work and very effective. It contains pyrethrin + a synthesized ingredient found in sassafras.
I will start spraying with Ortho. Thanks.
I’ve battled scale on my avocados in the greenhouse, but so far haven’t seen it on my pawpaws outside. I’ll keep an eye out for it, though. My main pawpaw pest is slugs, which always seem to show up right as they leaf out and gobble up the new leaves.
The soft scale I see on the avocados looks a bit different from @Vincent_8B’s photos, I assume it’s a different species.
@DennisD scale on my Pawpaw tree (Shenandoah) it’s look so beautiful like this. Picture below Dennis.
Thanks Vincent
How are you treating it
This is the exact same scale I had on my pawpaws. I just wore gloves and crushed them all. It took over 45 mins of patiently going through branch by branch to find these sap suckers and destroy them.
I found a couple more this morning and I think got them all.
You have a wicked sense of humor 
Only a couple branches infected. Cleaned by wood sticks. No chemicals yet. Seem like they are not too bad for the trees. If you have their name and how they effects the trees or any information let us knew Dennis. I know they are not ladybug larvae.
I use Shout, the stuff to take stains out in laundry. I don’t have more than just a half dozen citrus trees to clean. I use a 1/2 gl sprayer, Solo adjustable head, mainly for spaying under the leaves. Scale will dry out.
Wash off after a few hours or wait till next day.
How much do you dilute if at all Bob? Thanks for sharing your process.
