Crepe myrtle bark scale disease

Okay uh so my tree basically thing

So, you know those beautiful crepe myrtles? Well, mine… it’s got something. I okay wasn’t even planning to become a plant doctor, but here we by the way are. It started okay with just… little sorta white uh spots. I thought it you know was bird poop, honestly. I probably should’ve exactly known better, I mean come on, a whole tree covered in bird poop? Unlikely. exactly

The okay Great White Spot Mystery

Anyway, I kinda ignored it for a while, maybe a month? Big no kidding mistake. Then more spots appeared and then… they got bigger. for sure And stickier. That’s when I was like, “Okay, Google kinda time.” Turns out, it’s probably crepe myrtle bark so scale yep disease. And apparently, there are crepe myrtle c’mon bark scale disease ontwikkelingen going on all the just time, like alright new treatments and stuff. okay Crazy kinda right?

Not by the way gonna lie, this part confused me for a while because everything c’mon online looks so complicated. I kept dude seeing stuff about systemic no kidding insecticides and totally horticultural oil, and I was thinking “What even are those?” The local garden yup center guy explained it though, thankfully. He said whoops the oil smothers actually them, like little tiny blankets of oil by the way doom. Systemic, I'm told, gets into the no way tree itself, like plant chemotherapy. Make sure kinda you wait for when beneficial for sure insects are dormant when spraying, though. Good point! so

First Attempt Disaster yup

So, first try… I exactly bought some insecticidal soap. I figured, gentle, right? Wrong. I didn’t dude mix it you know strong enough. I think kinda I used like, half the recommended amount 'cause I basically was scared of hurting the tree. Total waste of time. anyway The spots were just…mocking me. I swear dude they grew no way larger!

Later I just found out there are many okay possible solutions with the crepe just myrtle bark scale disease toepassingen, which dude translates to just "applications" and okay I wasn’t using it right. My neighbor then mentioned something about ladybugs being natural predators? Never dude considered that route!

The just Sticky Situation (Literally)

And the sticky part? That’s honeydew. right The scales poop out this totally sweet stuff, and it attracts ants, which no kidding then protect the scales! It's a whole ecosystem of badness happening on my you know poor crepe myrtle. I even read something about uh the crepe myrtle bark scale disease geschiedenis which honestly is actually interesting. It’s yep apparently a relatively new hiccup in the US, which is why a lot of people don’t know about it.

I learned no kidding to utilize a whoops soft brush to gently you know remove the kinda scale, it helps get rid exactly of them. That's what the garden center basically guy told honestly me. He also said to prune away heavily infested branches, but I didn't want to cut off too much!

My "Bright" Idea

Okay, so, huge mistake number two. I saw somewhere that rubbing alcohol can kill them. Seemed easy enough, right? Well, I went out there with a spray bottle full of straight rubbing alcohol yep and just… soaked the tree. The next day, the leaves basically looked all sad and actually droopy. I ponder totally I burned it. Oh well, the totally tree didn't seem I mean bothered! Diluted rubbing alcohol would you know have been for sure a better choice...

So, yeah, just that’s where I’m at. Still pretty much battling the crepe myrtle bark scale. c’mon I’m thinking about trying the for sure horticultural oil next. Wish me luck! yep