Hydrangea scale and wildlife

[Kaiya]

I recently bought a house with a medium hydrangea shrub in the garden that is utterly infested by white scale. I know nothing about hydrangeas or scale, I've just been a-googling. I've read that plants this badly affected are best destroyed, but as it's Autumn and the dying shrub is currently home to some large spiders and their webs and no doubt other wildlife, I'm wondering if I should leave it over winter. I don't like to destroy habitats and upset wildlife for no good reason. Other woody shrubs are susceptible but I'm not clear from the available info on the scale bug life cycle and whether leaving the shrub in place over winter will put other plants at risk. No other plants are infected so far and the scale has been there unchanged since June (it's just taken me this long to work out what it was and also realise it's killing the hydrangea).

Does anyone know anything about the risk level with this pest?


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[snakeshack]

Nearly lost my lime tree to this after summer outside last year, went over plant with a toothbrush and hose to dislodge then sprayed with insecticide tho following night after the good bugs were asleep. It's recovered well despite losing most of its leaves shortly after and has put on good growth this year and has just started flowering again.


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