I have to agree with Ken on this one. (Surprised, Ken??) Some battles aren't worth fighting, and this is one of them. Euonymus scale insects are an extremely persistent insect; at the same time Euonymus is very, very susceptible to this pest.

With an infestation that appears to be at such an advanced stage as yours...taking years to get to this point....very few experts would advise that you try to 'fight the good fight'. You would be signing on for pesticide treatments for the life of these plants....something that is not good for YOU, or anything else.

Me? I'd be planning my way out of this mess. I would remove the plants entirely promptly, stumps and all. That would give me the summer to clean all of the debris and sort of get used to what my landscape looks like without the euonymus. Then, in whatever is the optimum planting time for you (fall, winter, early spring), I'd slowly replace them with completely different shrubs, ground cover, or perennials.

I'm attaching a google page of university based fact sheets for you to glean some further information about these nasty insects. I've moved into properties that had euonymus plantings and ripped them out before I unpacked my boxes!

If I had a FEW of these plants forced on me before I could see any sign of scale whatsoever, I'd begin treatments with a horticultural oil right away. It is not impossible at all to prevent a terrible infestation but it takes persistence and a lot of horticultural oil.

So! Are your plants shrubs or groundcover? How many do you have? How old do you think that they are?

Here is a link that might be useful: click here for great information

Wow, you guys are amazing! I thought it was wintercreeper but wasn't sure. It's more woody than the wintercreeper I had seen before. I have upwards of 10 of these and they are full-grown woddy bushes. One completely died and I already ripped it out last summer, but there are quite a few on the cusp of doom. I am going to go around and for the ones that are barely affected, cut those branches off. The rest might all just get the boot!

rhizo has nailed this one! My experience has been that the variegated types and both low and upright vining types (in particular, E. sarcoxie and E. fortunei 'Colorata') are scale BAIT. Minor infestation - hort oil, major infestation, scorched earth removal of them including the root. Around here the oil treatment is in early March, then late May to early June.
Having said all that, I have had two 'Manhattan' euonymus that have been completely scale free for almost 20 years. I think species and variety plays a role here.
hortster

This illuminates the downfall of having a monoculture in a landscape. If there are a myriad of different plants, it's not so bad if one dies. But when a whole hedge or every one of something you have 10 of gets a disease, it can make things really ugly (and a lot of work replacing them or trying to battle the disease or bugs.)

My advice if you are going to replace them would be to do so with 10 different plants. Do one or two at a time if that suits your style and schedule (and energy and budget) better than trying to tackle the whole thing at once.

I'm not so sure that ten plants of one species constitutes a problem...USUALLY. It does, though, when were talking about certain plants! I know that you'd have a battle on your hands if you told me to get rid of our drifts of Parsoni Juniper. Talk about a plant that's bullet proof.

A good policy is to do some research before falling in love with a plant. And definitely consider the problems of monoculture when designing for a large area. But ONE of some plants is too much, lol.

Sorry if it sounded like I was saying a monoculture causes problems. I just meant that when there is a monoculture and a problem arises, it usually affects all of those plants. Not saying that anyone should eradicate any healthy hedges or other large groups of healthy plants JUST SO they don't develop a problem.

Thanks for helping clarify, Rhizo.

I knew that's what you were saying. It just took two of us to explain it.

By the way, monoculture is thorn in the paw of many communities. I've seen so many southern cities plant nothing but Live Oaks in their parks, road sides, and other public properties. In reality, that's a completely inappropriate species for most of those purposes. And with the developing impact of some devastating oak problems......BANG!

Gotcha. High 5!

We just bought a 30 year old house with shrubs hiding pool equipment. When all the shrubs starting dying I had no idea what was going on but this post and all the replies to it were such a great help. Now we know what to do and don't have to waste money trying to save doomed plants. Thank you!

You're welcome! It's nice to know that an older thread can be of help.