AusBonsai

i have no idea how stupid this question may or may not be...
but does anyone know what these lumps are on my fig? black ones on the stems and whitish ones on the leaves?
the black ones are filled with a pink pollen looking stuff, and the white ones are empty. got me thinking they me be some kind of eggs or something

im pretty new to this, and didn't take much notice when they first showed up, but i have another fig almost identical, bought same day about 6 months ago and in the same soil mix and has no signs of them anywhere,
so just wondering if its an issue, and or if i should keep it away from my other plants

thanks

Hello Mbunro,

Looks like scale to me. They suck the nutrients out of the tree and turn the leaves yellow, weakening it.

If there are only a few you can just pick them off with your fingernail, otherwise a dose of Confidor will rid them. From the look of the photos I'd guess your fingernail should be enough this time round. If you leave them untreated they will multiply.

Cheers,
Pearcy.

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thanks,
just removed removed them all

It's scale insects..they mey come back so have your eyes open.

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I agree with Pearcy's diagnosis - scale insect.
You can remove the ones you can see but there will be more little ones that are too small to see, others hiding underneath the leaves and on the stems and more eggs waiting to hatch so there will almost certainly be more in the next few weeks.

Oil sprays work well for scale too and are pretty low toxicity. Just read the directions - don't use oil sprays in hot sun.

I too have used a natural oil spray in the past from garden supplies shop and haven't had any come back. Good luck.

thanks for the advice guys.

so iv been checking every few days and i find a couple more every time so going to give the confider a go.
a couple of my other trees have started getting small fruit fly looking things hanging around the soil also. Would confidor also work on these?
and is there any tricks / risks with using it?

No tricks to Confidor. You will find you can get different forms - liquid to spray on (ready to use or concentrate that you need to dilute), granules or tablet to put on the soil. All will work, just follow the directions on the packet.
Note that I don't think Confidor is registered for this type of scale. It might kill this one but the makers only claim it will kill soft scales. This is one of the hard scale insects.
My choice would be an oil spray. Yates Scale Gun is ready to use pyrethrum/white oil mix - easy, just spray straight on the leaves and trunk and it is registered to kill scale insects.

thanks Shibui.

Keen to do it right the first time so il grab the Yates scale gun over the weekend and give it a go.