"Nick wrote in message in reply to...
| Last year I bought an orange. A while later I noticed brown things on
| the leaves. At first I thought they were insects and I expected them
| to run away when I touched them, but they did not; they were stuck
| there. Then I thought may be they were the eggs of something. They are
| brown and only a fraction of an inch in size, and whatever they are
| you can scrape them off. The problem is they are all over the stems
| and on the leaves too.
|
| Last year I decided to cut back all the affected parts, which left me
| with hardly any tree left. This year the plant has grown back but so
| too have the things. What are they? I also find the plant is sticky to
| the touch.

They are scale insects. The best way to get rid of them is to
scrape them off. Repeat at weekly intervals until they stop
coming back. They live on both the leaves and stems.

Yes, I agree with Nick, common problem with all citrus, shame you cut the
tree back as they can be removed with a fingernail (messy) or blasted off
with a sprayer full of water with a drip of washing up liquid. Go over the
whole plant leaf by leaf and stem by stem making sure you get the tiny ones
in the cracks. Takes time and you will get wet too.
After a couple of weeks repeat the procedure and inspect your plants closely
in future for this nasty pest which is persistent.
The stickiness is their waste product. :-)

--
Regards
Bob

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