How much damage do birds do? They got every cherry off of 6 cherry trees this year. These are 16 foot tall trees, not dwarfs. They took all the sweet cherries and all the pie cherries. They damaged apples on all the trees. The amount of damage varies by tree. They ruined all the Cortlands long before they were ripe, and they ruined about 1/3 of the fujis, again damage starts way before the apples can be harvested. They damaged 100% of my nectarine crop (I got 3 nectarines) 70% of my peach crop, and 80% of the apricots. The only reason I had apricots this year is because I picked them green. They will take 100% of a strawberry crop, going into the plants and walking around underneath them to get the fruit, pecking and breaking the skin on every berry that they don't actually eat. They will peck at and ruin an entire grape crop and strip raspberries bare. I got blueberries for 2 years before the birds discovered they were edible and then the birds stripped the entire crop in one day-- not ripe, of course, so I couldn't beat the birds to them They either eat the fruit, or peck it and ruin it long before the fruit is ripe. I have many varieties of birds that come to feed: wrens, robins, blue jays, mockingbirds, sparrows, and many I don't know the names of. There are not many birds that will not eat fruit. If it's got feathers and it isn't a raptor, it probably eats fruit. When there is fruit, they make a racket that calls in birds from all over the area. So if you think your fruit is safe because you don't have many birds, think again. Also, they learn that there is food at your place and they put you on their schedule and come back year after year, in increasing numbers each year. At one point, I did get a nice crop of raspberries because the neighbor's cat was a bird killer and discovered he could hid in the raspberry vines and kill a lot of birds. He was fast enough to kill them before they could eat much. I would prefer to not kill the birds. Many of those fruit eaters are also bug eaters, so they are serving a purpose in the garden. But if you expect to get berries, think about netting.

Horticultural oil is a term used to describe ANY oil product used to control pests and diseases on plants. They can be petrochemicals OR plant based (mineral or vegetable) Hoosierquilt is right about neem being a type of horticultural oil. That's quite a bad infestation of mites you have, tia. As Houston suggests, I believe that I would treat it to a real 'bath' in the sink or tub before deciding on which treatment(s) to use. Some plain water and a soft sponge or cloth should be your first attack. I like the use of a horticultural oil (your choice of which kind) for the control of both spider mites AND scale insects. I strongly suggest that you use a commercial product...with an actual label to read and follow. Even petroleum based oils are safe to use on indoor plants, though I would spray outside just because of the potential for a mess. I believe that all plant growers should have a hort.oil on hand other than Neem. Oils (mineral OR plant based) work solely by smothering the soft bodied critter, its nymphs and eggs. Commercial products dry with very little visible residue or odor. How long between treatments depends upon the product you decide to purchase. Horticultural oils are useful in controlling mites, scale nymphs, aphids, whitefly nymphs. If I were to cite the things that Neem oil can help with, the list would be lengthy! Alcohol is also very helpful in controlling certain pests on citrus and other plants. I keep a little plastic spray bottle filled with 1 part alcohol to 3 or 4 parts water. Some people use it full strength. It's useful for mites, mealybugs, aphids, and the nymphs of whitefly. I've attached a short but sweet fact sheet that briefly explains what Horticultural oils are and how they work. Here is a link that might be useful: Click to see!

Some may have other information but I have always been comfortable eating fruit that was not fermented. Citrus has sections so the bird may have caused some damage to one or two sections but I'm guessing the damage goes little deeper than the rind. I say pick your first lemon, slice off just the skin at the deepest damaged place to better determine how deep the damage is and enjoy the rest! I also have bird problems with my Ponderosa lemons. Boat-tail grackles come in about this time of year and they don't peck holes in the peel but they scrape off the green zest. The lemons still fill out and mature but they are deformed because of the damage to the outter skin. I haven't found any ways to keep the grackles at bay.

The ladybugs are there to eat the little aphids (I think they're aphids), the little white granules you're talking about. Sometimes the good bugs take care of eating up the bad ones and you don't have to do a thing, but when I see one of my citruses get absolutely full of the aphids, I mix up a little soap and water solution and spray the tree down with that. I just did this on a little lime tree with a hand-held sprayer from the dollar store, a little bit of neem oil, a little bit of biodegradable dish soap, and water. The very next day the plant was clean as a whistle, and I didn't kill any good bugs in the process! Jane