Is this scale?

[Jamie]

get a ten dollar plastic container from the el cheapo shops, that should be sufficient enough for a dunk watering, and it saves using the bath inside the house where the other half might get a bit p$%^&d with ya


jamie

[Regan]

Lots of new growth on it Jamie.

Well I'm pretty sure there is no scale. I don't think there are aphids either. Could be thrips but they haven't started attacking the leaves yet.

There is definately ants, and I have had problems with caterpillars eating the new shoots on the lily pillies in the garden.

Thanks for the help everyone, certainly learning a lot about pests.

[Regan]

Nah I'll just wait till she goes out to get her hair cut tomorrow

[Greth]

pmsl, shes gonna love to find a trail of potting mix and angry ants carrying eggs all thru the house, and won't notice a thing.

[Regan]

Thats the beuaty of having a puppy I can blame it on her

[Glenda]

Just wondering, is it thrips on a ficus when the new shoots fold in half along the vein and seem stuck together with tiny grubby things inside them? I have had a few and have been using confidor, but have been told that ficus are sensitive to some pesticides. Also had heaps of grasshoppers until the rain. What is the best for them? Used some baits, and they seemed to cut the numbers but not entirely erradicate them.

Glenda

[Greth]

The folded leaves are some variety of caterpillar, Glenda, if theres only a few just open up the leaves and evict them by hand, nicer and cheaper than pesticides anyway.

[shibui]

I could'nt see the scale on mine but was pretty sure the ants were indicating scale that I used the white oil. After reading this thread i went back and checked closer. there were a few still left and lots of colored dots where the had been sucking and had gone after the spray.

Ficus scale.JPG

PICT0423.JPG

Typically clustered along the central vein of the leaf