Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My cham's ficus had scale when I bought it, and though I washed it off real well, a couple survived. On a gardening forum they suggesting spraying the plant with isopropyl alcohol. One user said she used it to clean snake cages. The alcohol would be good for eliminating plant pests and also killing bacteria that would be of harm to your cham. The problem is your cham thinking it's water and drinking it before it evaporates. I was thinking of removing my cham from the cage while I spray stuff down, but for treating scale, this is supposed to be done every few days. Removing him that often might cause him stress. Any thoughts on this?
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~Melissa
1.0 Ambanja Panther (Diesel)
0.1 African Hegdehog (Kaimah)

I think the best and safest way to treat a cage plant for disease is to rotate it out with another plant, treat the plant for as long as you need to, wait for the various chemicals to rinse or evaporate away, and rotate it back in. This way you are only stressing the cham 2 times. I'm not a plant expert...will scale kill the Ficus or just disfigure it? If it can live with the scale it might be simplest to leave all alone or rub the alcohol right in the scale by hand so there are no drips to attract the cham.

Thanks Carlton.

I don't think scale will kill it. The greenhouse I worked at had a tree with scale. I lived with it but the plant suffered. I suppose it depends on the degree of infestation. My plant does not have it too bad. I'll probably just clean it real well in a few weeks when I move and stick it back in. It should be fine.
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~Melissa
1.0 Ambanja Panther (Diesel)
0.1 African Hegdehog (Kaimah)