Question
insect or fungus
I have what looks like large brown wooly aphid type things, sitting in a white fluffy mould.I cant tell if it's an insect or a fungus, as it squashes when i try to remove it. The tree seems healthy, (lime tree),but oddly, bees are attracted to it, while ignoring flowers next to the tree. Do you have any idea what they could be, and how i get rid oof them please.
AnswerAnn,
The picture is a bit fuzzy but I'm pretty sure these are cottony scale insects. They produce the cottony material and the insect is under this mass. Bees, ants and wasps are attracted to the sweet honeydew that these insects produce (like aphids). Adult scale insects can be difficult to control and can be very damaging if the infestation gets too large. If this is an ornamental tree (does not produce edible fruit) you could probably treat it (check the product label) with imidacloprid or Merit Insecticide. Otherwise use insecticidal soap and horticultural oil.
Take a look at this page http://www.livingwithbugs.com/sca_ins.html for information about scale insects and this page http://www.livingwithbugs.com/merit_insecticide.html for information about using Merit Insecticide. For information about insecticidal soap see this page http://www.livingwithbugs.com/insecticidal_soap.html as well.
Soap will be useful for control of young scale insects but once the insects get to this stage you'll need something like Merit.
If you have only one small tree it is sometimes possible to simply scrap away the scales with a cotton swap dampened with alcohol. Scale insects develop slowly so you can stay ahead of the infestation with this regular "cleaning".
Jack DeAngelis, PhD
Extension Entomologist (ret.)
My website about home and garden pests: http://www.livingwithbugs.com
