I saw it's leaves started droppong and crinkling as if it was not receiving enough water for a few days, despite the soil being wet. While watering, I noticed these red things on the branches. Is this a fungus? Is there a cure for it? Please help I have been caring for this baby for years now, so I am attached.
Meyer Lemon, indoor because it doesn't tolerate the strong sun or strong rain we get outside (yet), citrus soil fertilized with manure a few months ago. Filtered sunlight. Gets watered when the soil is dry or when the leaves start giving signs of underwatering.
by Ill_Pudding8069
7 Comments
Hello! These are scale insects. You can easily remove them with your fingernail or something that can scrape them off but not cut into the stem like a credit card. They’re sucking insects so the symptoms present as wilted leaves. This is a bad infestation but they’re fairly easy to treat. Remove as many as you can, let that soil dry out, and keep checking and removing new ones daily.
!scale
an infestation this bad is going to be a major pain to get rid of. you’re going to have to make sure you’re constantly on it, even when you think you’ve gotten them all there’s a good chance you’ll find more the next week, and the week after, and the week after. I had a giant tree philodendron that had scale when I first bought it and after two years of battling and doing every treatment I could find I finally gave up, here’s hoping that your lemon has a happier ending! 🤞🤞
To remove scale insects:
Get a bag of those cotton makeup remover pads and a bottle of rubbing alcohol. If you have latex gloves in the house it doesn’t hurt to wear them so you don’t risk transferring any bugs to other plants. Wipe the stems and leaves with alcohol soaked pads, changing them frequently. Look in crevices and the undersides of leaves. Try to wipe away every single one you can spot.
After that, you should treat the plant with an insecticidal soap – but if you have pets in the house check about what product to use. You could use gentle soap like castile or Dawn mixed with water instead. Some people use neem oil, but I personally dislike the odor.
You’re going to have to do this periodically. Scale bugs come back but you just keep wiping them away and gently spraying the plant now and then.
The only way I was able to get rid of scale once and for all was with a systemic insecticide. Imidiacloprid (bonide) worked for my olive tree but it took weeks to fully kick in and spread throughout the tree. If it’s legal to buy in your area, do some research on the pros and cons, and maybe consider it as a nuclear option
https://preview.redd.it/e54d5deefbcf1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4062ec1f61f654f44b09e7fb5e62efcda69159c2
Ugh, scale. I had them on my weeping fig. I had to pick all them off, take the plant to the bathtub and drench the plant in insecticidal soap. Rinse and repeat for a few weeks because the soap didn’t kill the eggs in the soil. Unsure if it’s safe to use insecticidal soap on lemon though.
Scale