Author Topic: Unknown citrus pest  (Read 633 times)

Dominik

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Unknown citrus pest
« on: May 22, 2023, 01:49:29 PM »
Hello everyone,
I have a Limonella tree and I've recently noticed small, strange spots on its leaves (I think they're larvae of a parasitic insect). What kind of pest is this and how to deal with it?


Any help would be appreciated.

drymifolia

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Re: Unknown citrus pest
« Reply #1 on: May 22, 2023, 05:24:18 PM »
The photo is too blurry, try to get a better close up photo of the leaves and "larvae" if you want a better chance of a helpful answer

1rainman

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Re: Unknown citrus pest
« Reply #2 on: May 22, 2023, 07:17:56 PM »
Can't tell from the photo. I had tiny almost invisible slugs on my container citrus in Ohio. They were eating the sap. I sprayed the whole plant with neem oil and the dirt, trunk leaves etc and got rid of them. Prior to that I tried different stuff that didn't work. The neem oil sticks and stays on the plant until it's washed off and didn't hurt the plant though after about a week I started hosing it down because it's not good for the plant to have that coating on it's leaves.

Could be something else in your case but neem oil will kill just about any small insect. Could be spider mites if it's indoors.

Ilya11

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Re: Unknown citrus pest
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2023, 03:45:03 AM »
Photo is not clear, but if it looks like this:



it is a spider mite infestation
« Last Edit: May 23, 2023, 03:47:21 AM by Ilya11 »
Best regards,
                       Ilya

Dominik

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Re: Unknown citrus pest
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2023, 01:04:24 PM »
@drymifolia I've taken some closer photos of the leaves




I think this is a kind of thrips but I'm not sure

1rainman

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Re: Unknown citrus pest
« Reply #5 on: May 23, 2023, 09:01:04 PM »
It does look like spider mites though I can't be sure. Almost everything I grow indoors gets spider mites other than typical houseplants. Outside no spider mites. The best thing to prevent them is take it outside and blast the whole plant with a house or if you can't do the put it in the bath tub and give it a good shower. Or set outside during a rain storm. Which is good for the plant not even considering spider mites. The outside sun and wind also reduce them but mainly water blasts. Neem oil will get rid of basically any insect so I would do neem oil when you have an infestation then to prevent one give the plant a shower occasionally. Especially the undersides of the leaves.

Millet

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Re: Unknown citrus pest
« Reply #6 on: May 24, 2023, 12:11:06 PM »
The damage looks to large for spider mites,  To me it looks like scale.  Either way a spray with neem oil or a horticulture oil  would take care of either insect.  As 1rainman wrote water spray would eliminate spider mites, but water would not eliminate scale.

drymifolia

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Re: Unknown citrus pest
« Reply #7 on: May 24, 2023, 12:37:21 PM »
Water does help clean the scale sludge off the leaves at least, but the only non-insecticide solution I've found for scale is patiently squishing by hand.