What to do about a flowering currant covered with white disease or fungus?

Question

Does anyone know what this is and how to deal with it please (I am in the UK)? Are there any precautions I need to take if I just remove the whole shrub? It is a flowering currant. Thanks

Answer 1

In the end my only practical option. I hope I've done enough to deal with this now!

Answer 2

I can't magnify the photo well enough to examine the white patches in close up, but most likely its a scale infestation. You can rub it off the woody parts with a damp cloth, scrubbing as hard as you like, but on the leaves, you'd need to be much more gentle. This looks like a heavy infestation, and you might want to consider removing the shrub and choosing a different plant, because it's difficult to completely eradicate scale once it's this bad, see here https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=926