Is this a continuation of your thread at http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/maple/msg0818082517779.html?2 If so, please keep all the info there. If it is, the tiny white things are likely normal -- many critters live under loose bark. Here is a link that might be useful: your original thread?

I would say to coax some of these bugs onto a piece of paper and take pictures of them. I have never heard of any herbs like this or any other plants for that matter, dying in a few hours after looking great just hours earlier. The only time I have ever seen anything like that was a few hours after spraying Spectracide weed and grass control. I am talking about the non-selective weed control with diquat dibromide, and on certain weeds it will cause significant visible damage and discoloring within a few hours of its a hot day outside especially. Its possible they just dried out and began wilting.

all bugs are "beneficial" - there are dozens of organisms that are a normal part of the decomposition process and avoidance of most requires maintaining certain conditions - drier is better, especially right at the surface, within the limits of what the worms need food waste of any kind [including carrots, orange peel, celery, Carmania] has a very high water content and needs to be combined with absorbant carbon, especially some that will keep the structure open to air circulation .... if you add a 'large amount' of food waste at once then leave it, the mass will quickly become anaerobic and soon be a liquid mess to cause the problems seen the best bet for leaving a worm bin unattended for long periods is to leave only scattered small amounts of feedstock and put the bin in the coolest location you can with a cover to slow evaporation, the worms can do fine re-processing the bedding material for a long time Bill

Hi Limeinqueens. I am close to you in NJ if you are in Queens NY. It will do better outside in the long run. I am battling scale right now myself. We had such a long cold cloudy spring until now that my trees were not growing either, but during these last few hot sunny days they have really taken off. New growth is bursting out all over and many are blooming again. I have more than 40 trees and only the Owari Satsuma is still just sitting there inactive although it looks healthy. Several of my trees leaves got yellowish and spotty, but I think that was because they had a hard time absorbing fertilizer nutrients while it was cooler. Also, we just had weeks of cloudy weather here; no actual rain but it always looked threatening. Just days and days of clouds and hardly any sun. Now that it is sunny and hot for a few days and we have had one rainstorm the trees have really taken off. I have the problem with the ants farming the scale and some aphids, but I have been trying to get rid of them with water sprays, soap sprays, alcohol, and ultrafine horticulture oil, and fish emulsion. Usually I can just hook my miracle grow fertilizer attachment to my garden hose, fill it with fish emulsion (if you don't mind the smell) and just give them and all the bushes and hedges in the yard a good spray and it clears them all up. Not this year though; they are much more persistent. I think I have to find something that will get rid of the ants. Usually they are the little ones, but this year it seems to be much larger ants and nothing phases them. I have been cleaning my trees leaf by leaf and it can be very time consuming. Unfortunately I still have those pesky ants farming the scale mainly, but the trees are growing so fast I think they are better outside. Last evening I sprayed everything with Ulrafine or maybe it is called UltraPure hoticultural oil. Don't spray oils when it is hot or sunny or you will burn your plants. If you spray in the evening the oil will dissapate by morning and your plants will be safe if it is a sunny day. I have started to add Pro-Tekt, a Dyna-Gro product, which is supposed to improve heat and drought tolerance, increase resistance to environmental stress, and enhance growth for stronger, hardier plants. If your plants are healthy they can take care of disease and bugs pretty well by themselves. I have used it on my orchid collection for several years and I feel that the plants were more resistant to mealy bug and scale all winter when I used it during the summer. Nothing scientific about my experience, just my observation. I forget to use it last summer and then I seemed to have a buggy winter so I just started using it again. I mix it in with the Foliage Pro, but you can't mix them together or you get a precipitate. I mix the Foliage Pro with water and then add the Pro-Tekt and it is fine, just don't mix the two concentrates together first and then add water, or you will see the precipitate and it will not mix correctly. It says it on the label of the Pro -Tekt, but you might not see it. Don't get discouraged. Your tree will be taking off soon now. Don't forget to fertilize regularly. I think you have a Meyer Lemon from reading your past posts. You may have to feed it a little more than other citrus, I think because it is continuously blooming and setting fruit. Make sure your fertilizer contains the micronutients. Foliage Pro does. Many do not, and that might be why your tree is yellowing. But I think it is probably the results of the colder weather, cloudy skies, and it may just be the older leaves being drained of food as it is about to go into a period of rapid growth. I notice that happens with some of mine. Some citrus seem to be heavier feeds than others. Good luck with your tree and I hope you will soon be enjoying beautiful rapid growth and fragrant blooms. Cory