Bug-like things on sad pedros?

[Guest d0tb0y]

Heya, i just checked my 3 san pedros and at random points all over the surface there are these little black ovals stuck to the cactii. I can pick them off with my fingernail and there remains a little white dot where the black oval was, i assume whatever the hell these things are they were eating thru the skin?

Wtf are these things, they look like little seeds of some sort, but uh, i don't know how cactii seed, and i dont think cactii seeds on the outside.. wouldnt the seeds come from when the cactii flowers.. anyone know what these little dudes are?

d.

[Torsten]

scale insects. they suck the sap. they also have hard wazy shields to protect them from sprays. most sprays that kill scale also kill cacti (both tend to suffocate). I find rubbing them off or blasting with pressure nozzle to be the most effective methods of reducing them. eliminating them is impossible no matter how much poison you use.

[smogs]

Are there alot of ants around as well? because alot of scale bugs rely on ants to move them about so you can stop the ants and remove the oens already theer and they wont come back

}:-)

[Guest d0tb0y]

Hmm, yes, there were ants crawling all around the patio where they were. *moves cactii now*

ta.

edit: torsten, you blast them off with a pressure cleaner? Those things are like 100-1000psi. you'd knock the cactii clean over with that kind of pressure, no??

[ 28. September 2003, 16:30: Message edited by: d0tb0y ]

[Torsten]

no, no, a pressure 'nozzle'. its one of those single stream nozzles you attach to your normal garden hose. not very powerful at all, but just perfect to get rid of the softer type of scale. harder ones may need some light scrubbing with a hard paintbrush... followed by hosing off.

[Piers Gibbon]

well i'm wondering whether san pedros increase alkaloid production in response to insect nibbling?

anyone have any data or ideas on this?