Mozie said:


Hi all

I got a bay tree for Christmas, but it has little brown nodules, mostly
on the underside of the leaves and also the stem/trunk. I looked up in
my pest/disease book but can't find what they are, if they are normal
and if not, how to get rid of them.

Here are some pics, http://tinyurl.com/cdlsj

Mozie, your bay tree has an infestation of scale insects.

For strictly ornamental plants, a systemic insecticide would work, but if
you intend to use the bay leaves in cooking (and I'm assuming you do),
you will need a less toxic, but more labor intensive approach to controlling
the scale.

As your bay tree looks to be a small plant, so the first thing you should
do is to try to carefully scrape off all the scales that you can see. Then
spray the plant with a mix of insecticidal soap and water. Leave this on a
short while and then give the whole plant a good rinse. Repeat this at
weekly intervals for several weeks. (There may be scale eggs left behind
to hatch out, and the young scales, or crawlers are vulnerable to the soap
solution, while the adult scales are not.)

--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)