Question: What kind of oil can I use on the citrus trees? I am hoping for something I can buy from the grocery store.

Question: What is the best kind of sticky stuff that I can use to coat a yellow plastic plate with. (I read that I can use Tanglefoot, but I'm figuring that over the long haul it might be wiser to be able to have a home remedy.)

There are young leaves emerging. Only one of the ten trees is starting to bloom. The lemons trees have just been picked. Out of ten citrus trees, there are three that were heavily infested with the cottony cushion scale--and from the pictures that I can find, I believe all three stages of developement were in all three trees. It took me almost three days to clean the underside of leaves and the twigs and trunk. I used q-tips dipped in alchohol, and washed all the leaves with a table spoon of baking soda to two gallons of water.

There was one solitary red vedalia beetle on one of the trees, so I want to stay away from an insecticide. The red ants around the place are under control--only two were seen roaming the twigs.