Can anyone tell me the disease and/or solution?

My lemon tree's branches are all quite black and most branches are
covered in what look like insect eggs on them (colour and size of sesame
seeds). The underside of the leaves are mostly okay but have some of the
same eggs.

Are these indeed eggs and is the black colour some fungus that is
related? Will malathion or white oil fix it?

TIA, etc.

"Mike Echo" wrote in message
.au...
Can anyone tell me the disease and/or solution?

My lemon tree's branches are all quite black and most branches are
covered in what look like insect eggs on them (colour and size of sesame
seeds). The underside of the leaves are mostly okay but have some of the
same eggs.

Are these indeed eggs and is the black colour some fungus that is
related? Will malathion or white oil fix it?

TIA, etc.

From the description of the "insect eggs" it sounds like scale. What looks
like eggs are actually the scale, their protective coating, the insect is
under them.
You will find white oil or spray oil should kill them. Just make sure you
spray/cover all of them.

Oh yeah, I take it the "black" look of the branches are due to masses of
these scale? The only other option on the branches is sooty mould. Sooty
mould has a black powdery look to it. But the egg type looking things will
be scale.

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In article , notchevy327
@hn.ozemail.com.au says...

From the description of the "insect eggs" it sounds like scale. What looks
like eggs are actually the scale, their protective coating, the insect is
under them.
You will find white oil or spray oil should kill them. Just make sure you
spray/cover all of them.

Thanks Andrew, I'll give it a try tomorrow.

Andrew G wrote:
From the description of the "insect eggs" it sounds like scale. What
looks
like eggs are actually the scale, their protective coating, the insect is
under them.
You will find white oil or spray oil should kill them. Just make sure you
spray/cover all of them.

Oh yeah, I take it the "black" look of the branches are due to masses of
these scale? The only other option on the branches is sooty mould. Sooty
mould has a black powdery look to it. But the egg type looking things will
be scale.


Might be worth checking for ants too, especially if the tree is in a
pot. Ants like to hang out with scale and sooty mould and can make those
problems worse, plus add their own.

Jane

In article ,
says...

Might be worth checking for ants too, especially if the tree is in a
pot. Ants like to hang out with scale and sooty mould and can make those
problems worse, plus add their own.

Jane

Yeah, there are lots of the little buggers there. Thanks for the
response.

Mike Echo writes:
My lemon tree's branches are all quite black and most branches are
covered in what look like insect eggs on them (colour and size of sesame
seeds). The underside of the leaves are mostly okay but have some of the
same eggs.

Ah, you've got yourself a crop of aphids. They can be moved with the
gentle touch of a finger? If not, then they are not aphids, though.

For aphids, spray with a 1:3 dilution of methylated spirits. The aphids
die instantly.
--
John Savage (newsgroup email invalid; keep news replies in newsgroup)