Pest I.D.

[boom64]

Hi All, I recently noticed one of my Kunzeas looking a bit of colour. On closer inspection I found thousands of small hard shell like pests all over the leaves. They a bit bigger than a pen point, green/yellow colour and crush under pressure. The tips of the infected branches are going grey/ brown and the whole branch is very pale in comparison to the rest of the tree. any help would be very much appreciated. Sorry about the quality of the photos. Cheers John.

[wattynine]

Looks like scale to me, though I am not familiar with this particular colouration of pest.
Sometimes a good brush with soapy water will get rid of them,can use a garlic/ chilli mix for the non toxic approach, or of course there is Confidor, as a sucking insect, this will effect them both on contact and as a result of them feeding.
Google scale insects, sure you'll find them there.
Mate, good luck, but get to them now.

[shibui]

I'd say some sort of scale too.

Soapy water works but you do need to keep using it every week or so to be effective.
'Natrasoap' has some low toxic chemicals added to make it more effective.
Oil sprays ('White oil', 'eco-oil', etc )are often used for scale but make sure you read the label properly - oil sprays can damage the plant if used in hot weather. Oils are mostly very low toxicity because they evaporate quite quickly but non target species that get sprayed will also be affected.
Systemics like 'Confidor' are very effective but will also affect non target species.

[boom64]

Thanks for the feedback Wattynine and Shibui. It looks like I have a battle on my hands. I will try a non toxic approach, initially. Cheers John.