. They also have a good publication "Common Sense Pest Control". I have read recently where Stephen Tvedten, president of Get Set Inc. , has come out with an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) encyclopedia titled "The Best Control II" that contain 2,800 safe and effective alternatives to pest control. www.stephentvedten.com .
The problems I have experienced with palms are scale, mites, mealybugs and fungus.
Mites should not be a problem outside if the plant is in a reasonable location. We are blessed with a lot of predatory mites that take care of the problem outside in the Bay Area. Mites are dormant in the winter but the predators go into dormancy before the pest mites in late autumn and in the spring the pests awake first, so there is a short period of time that they may be susceptible. Indoors is a different thing. Mites are probably the major problem for interior palms. If you can place them outside for a few weeks, (in temperate weather and in the shade), that should take care of the problem.
Ants are the main distributors of scale, aphids and mealybugs. They distribute them around your plants so that they can feed on the sugary honeydew that they excrete. Ants will do their best to kill predators that feed upon the pests so ant control is paramount. I place ant stakes at the base of each plant where I notice ants crawling up a trunk. You can also put a wide band of Tanglefoot around the trunk. It comes in a tube like toothpaste. It is nontoxic and easy to apply. There are lots of bait recipes. Mix 2 tablespoons each of peanut butter and jelly and 1 tablespoon of boric acid, (from a pharmacy or hardware store). Place the bait on paper where the ants are foraging and out of the way of pets and children as it is toxic to swallow boric acid. This remedy is from Richard Fagerlund's column "Ask the Bugman" that I religiously read in the Saturday San Francisco Chronicle home section.
If the foliage is covered in sticky honeydew you have to wash it off--dish soap water, light horticultural oil, special orange oils or castile soap will do the trick. Predators will not land on the sticky leaves. Besides being carried by ants, scale and mealybugs will die
if they are dried out or smothered. Low toxicity sprays of oils or soap will do the trick but, because they have no residue, repeated applications are required. Adult scale, which looks like a bump or pimple on the surface of the branch is harder to kill then soft aphids
or mealybugs. If you flip off the scale you will notice it is protecting its eggs under its body. You have to time the spraying (every week to 10 days) to get the eggs as they hatch. Juvenile stages of scale are very easy to kill, because their soft bodies are susceptible to drying out. I favor using an oil spray because of its smothering effect. A word of caution: All pesticides, especially containing oils, should never be used when the plant is in full sunlight or if the temperature is high because of the possibility of burning your leaves. Early morning, late afternoon, and overcast days are best.
I like to eliminate as much of the pest as possible by pruning browning or very damaged foliage. Then I spray water with a strong brass "fog it" nozzle, (hardware or nursery). It will remove most of the critters without tearing the leaves. If it is a small indoor
plant I spray it with diluted ammonia. ("Windex" or rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle will work). This is the only pest control that I use in my house except for boric acid baits.
For outside plants, my easy choice is a horticultural oil such as "Ultrafine" "Sunspray" etc. They are all petroleum products that are very refined. Don't use a heavy dormant oil like Volk oil as it could burn sensitive leaves. Some people mix horticultural oils with insecticidal soaps (M-pede). Be sure to lower the rate of both if you do. Jungle Rain is a plant cleaner and general pesticide that many conservatories use so as not to create harmful residues for their biological control efforts. It contains vegetable oil, citric acid and castile soap.
The following are some non-toxic recipes for general pest control:
· Insecticidal vegetable oil spray: 1 tablespoon dish soap to 1 cup vegetable oil. Take 1-2 teaspoons of this mix and add it to a cup of water. Spray all parts of the plant.
·
For mildew: 2/3 teaspoon of baking soda and 2 tablespoons liquid dish soap, mix into 1 gallon of water.
·
If I have a plant that has a bad infestation or seems to consistently gets pest problems, I add a system granulated pesticide to the soil after I have sprayed the foliage with one of the low toxic sprays. I find this combination better than using toxic general chemical sprays.
My favorite is Merit (imidacloprid). Bayer Chem co. has a formulation of this that is sold at nurseries and hardware stores under the name Tree and shrub systemic granular pesticide. I bury the appropriate amount at the base of the trunk under a small amount of soil or mulch so that when you water the chemical won't volatilize and create an inhalation problem. If you apply it to a container, be sure you take it outside, apply, water, and let it volatilize for a few hours before bringing it back inside.
·
For fungal problems, I would suggest dusting with sulfur. If you are tempted to use a chemical fungicide remember that they are all potential carcinogens and take all precautions. Please, always follow the package rate for application and where appropriate protection. Remember that more is not better. “
Originally published in :
PSNCC WEB SITE
2008-03-15
