We have scale also and it is extremely hard to get off. Hand picking each one does work and is messy and very time consuming. A blast of water may work before they make the shells that are attached to the plant. There are several kinds of scale and maybe Carlos has a different scale than we have. We have more than one kind. I think many people on this list don't realize what a problem snails and slugs can be either. I can pick up over 100 in a 30 minute time frame and keep doing this all day long in bright sunlight and there are still more. So when people talk about just hand picking those, they obviously live in areas that do not have so many. We work on controlling them every year, all year long. Carolyn in Los Gatos where we are constantly dealing with snails and slugs. ************************************** AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com/.