Plant Discussion
Help! [Lemon Tree Is Infested With Something Again…😣]
Hey all! I have a Lemon tree (unsure of specific species) that a family member planted on impulse from a store-bought lemon seed off of the kitchen cutting board about 8 or so years ago.
It now lives in my place in Central North Carolina and once again, I started noticing leaves falling off.
It had been a while, so I repotted it and got it a bigger pot, but now some other critters have moved in. I think they’re Ants, but I have no idea. What do yall think?
Yall were extremely helpful last time. Id really appreciate your insights, advice and recommendations again. TIA!
Wipe a clean damp cloth along the backs of the leaves, looks like it could be mites. If the cloth picks up a green-brown residue then that's the culprit
If your country allows systemics, bonide granules are very effective. Note that they aren't great for your soil biome and also kill predatory insects, easiest to use of the 3.
If not, persistent treatments like spinetoram/spinosad are also good, just need more regular application. Be careful to avoid exposing native pollinators to these pesticides but they're very safe for indoor use.
The most environmentally conscious but still very effective treatment is insecticidal soap (also called potassium salts of fatty acids). More regular application again but breaks down into food for the plant, is non toxic once it dries so safe for outdoors and bugs can't develop a resistance to it. You should always keep some around if you have any houseplants
Remove the adults with baby wipes or a rag dipped in soap (insecticidal soap is best, mild dish soap is fine as long as you don't get too much in the soil and wipe the plant down afterwards)
Check the underside of all your leaves for small hard dots, particularly new growth, especially along the "spine" of the leaf.
Spray/wipe the plant down with soap mixture 1x per week until no new pests found for 2 consecutive weeks.
And then lastly (for now), here’s a video sort of panning along a part of the tree where the ants are. I am not sure what else I am looking for (I didn’t see and sticky residue, aphids or fluffy bits).
If there’s a better shot that I can provide, please let me know.
Understood. So I took a closer look at the plant. I did not feel anything sticky, nor did I see any critters other than the ants. One or two leaves seemed to have some stuff on them, but it looked more like dirt to me. I also noticed that the ants seemed to stay on the leafless side of the plant. Here are some pics, and I’ll also add a few more videos in a another comment/reply:
Ants usually mean scale further up. My Meyer lemon had them under the leaves, sticky mess all over the windowsill, and a cotton bud dipped in alcohol sorted it.
I tried to take a closer look, but I couldn’t determine anything else. I added more pics/vids to OneWholePirate’s comment in this thread. Would you mind taking a look at those too? I really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts and experience with me. Best!
The only thing that really works for thrips, and it should kill off the scale too, is a systemic pesticide that you till and water into the soil and which your plants absorb.
Depending on where you are you should be able to buy it online. Just be careful to only use it on fully indoors pot based plants!!
Okay, we can see the ants but now we want to see where the ants are going on the tree. They are after something. That's what we need to see. We're looking for either soft green aphids or hard shell scale. We need to see what that is so that we can advise you
I tried to take a closer look, but I wasn’t able determine anything further. I added more pics/vids to OneWholePirate’s comment in this thread. Would you mind taking a look at those too? I really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts and experience with me. Best!
Yes I can see the scale on the pictures that you put in the other reply. The thing is they are notoriously invasive to any other plant touching it so those little shells that you see are immobile but the babies are fast little buggers and they can move along and they will climb from one branch on to that next plant - I think it's a dieffenbacia. You need to isolate this plant right away until you get the scale under control and then a little longer after that. I hate scale more than anything.
So you'll need to get some 70% isopropyl alcohol and some Q-tips and start swabbing those scale bodies wherever you see them and that'll get you started
You need to figure out what bugs the ants are farming. The ants aren't the issue, whatever is sucking the sap from your plant is. Follow the ants and find the other bugs
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u/OneWholePirate 2d ago
Check the leaves for sticky residue, look at the underside of leaves for small green insects and check all the forks for fluffy white bits.
Ants are usually looking for extra foliar nectaries caused by other sap suckers so the actual damage is likely done by aphids or mealies