0tterbot wrote:
hello!

dh has a friend who is giving us a fig tree, so i was hoping to help her
with her problem!

she has a lemon tree stricken simultaneously with:

some sort of mould that i think is sooty mould(?!) it's firm, slightly
scratchy to touch, black, and when you turn the leaf in teh light there is
something of a sparkly, mica-like effect. it can't be rubbed off the leaf.

and, small bugs all along the centres of the leaves (top side.) very very
small - the smallest are less than 0.5mm, & look like 6 teeny tiny legs
covered with white, and a teeny tiny ridge on their back (also white). the
bigger ones (about 1mm) are the same, but reddish body between the tiny
ridges of white. oval-shaped. i can't give a better description because even
with magnifying goggles, i can't identify them any better - i jsut can't SEE
them properly.

there's also scale there.

i was going to recommend she try white oil to suffocate the buglets &
scale - but, don't many bugs carry fungi etc with them and may be
responsible for the black stuff too....?

any ideas? we are in canberra.
many, many thanks :-)
kylie



Where have you been?
The sooty mould (black Stuff) is caused by scale insects, which in most
cases are "farmed by ants" who milk them for their honeydew. The
honeydew causes the black mould.
Don Burke taught me all about this.
Anyway spray them with the white oil available from your local nursery
for the purpose..
As well as the spray oil, you can get the aerosol spray cans to do the job.

Also great time to make sure theyre fed and planted where the tree wont
get wet feet, but wont dry out. They love living next to chook
houses....As do all citrus trees....