Martin wrote:
Hello all,
I have a juniperus squatmata that I have noticed has many chalky white
deposits on the scales (mainly on secondary branches, and generaly one
deposit per scale.) Upon closer inspection (and to my shock horror) I have
also noticed many tiny red dots dispersed across the juniper and hiding
under the bark and scales. I have just eradicated a black fly colony also on
this plant (using a pyrethrum spray).

Please any help in regards to the white specs and red mites whould be
appreciated. A systemic insecticide for the mites perhaps?

Thanks - Martin.

Notes: Is Mid-Late winter here averaging 15-6 deg C (59-42 deg F), South
Eastern Australia
Juniper is in a 1.5 inch X 12 inch bonsai pot, coarse free draining bonsai
soil, well fertilised with seaweed derived liquid fertiliser (Seasol) once
every 3 weeks. Situated outdoors in full sun on a bench.


Everyone should note this message. It contains the info we
need to make suggestions that MAY help. :-)

The small red dots, as you diagnosed, are likely to be
spider mites. Usually a HARD blast of water (careful of the
soil -- cover with foil!) will take care of the mites.
They're almost immune to most pesticides. An oil spray will
help, too.

The deposits MAY be nothing more than calcium carbonate
precipitating out of the water as it is transpired through
the tiny stomata on the leaves, or evaporite from simple
evaporation. It too should "vanish" when you give the tree a
hard spray, but if it is caked on the scales, it may
reappear when the tree dries. You may have to Brush the
tree vigorously (hold it in its pot!) with a whisk broom or
something to get it off.

If you can pick the white stuff off with a tweezer and
squish it, it is something else -- white fly, mealy bug,
scale, aphid?? The pyrethrin should have taken care of
these -- with the possible exception of the scale, whose
waxy outer coating causes sprays to wash off -- use an oil
spray to suffocate them.

But it sounds like a chemical deposit.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Nature
encourages no looseness, pardons no errors. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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