Thanks Patty! I just ordered a bottle from amazon. Question: how exactly do I apply it? Do I pour into a spray bottle or do I need to somehow add it to my hose? (New at gardening so excuse the dumb question. I tried to search amazon reviews but didn't find the answer) Also, should I spray the whole tree or just that single branch that has blooming flowers? I haven't seen them on the other branches but maybe I'm just not looking close enough. Should I spray my other plants as well? All my plants are in the same area... Lettuce, basil, green onion, other citrus plants, etc... Thanks so much!!! Spinosad seems like a miracle worker!

Scale "bugs" feeds on the plant and then secrete a waste product called honeydew. You can google this and read about it. The ants come around to feed on the sweet, sticky honeydew. If you have a big infestation of scale and you walk under a large tree with it, it will "rain" down on you. Yuck. I generally physically remove as many creatures as I can. I try to prune off heavily infested branches, and keep the plant open and airy. I try to keep the plant as healthy as possible with compost and organic mulch, and pesticide and herbicide-free so beneficials including birds will come and help. I would put the scale that I removed and the pruned peices into a bag and discard. I probably would not compost this. Most plants can survive a moderate infestation, most plants are never entirely pest free. I agree horticultural oil acts by smothering the scale. Most folks feel these oils are fairly low toxicity. If you practice IPM you wouldn't really use them. Some folks make a homemade oil and water mixture. Not sure if this is less toxic, use olive oil? If you do use an oil, yes you should spray the undersides of the leaves where the scale hides. I think you would have to repeat after a time as the eggs hatch. I vote for enticing beneficials into the garden with organic practices and plant diversity. I think your Meyer will be OK. Laurie

Sounds like leaf miner. We used to get it all the time on our lemon tree in Perth... along with aphids, scale and some disease which peels the bark. Despite being anti-chemical for many, many years, I am now a convert to carbaryl. This is a contact poison with no withholding period. I use it to combat cherry slug, which were killing my cherry trees. I also used it to get rid caterpillars which were eating the buds of my pernnials and roses. Go and ask at you local gardening shop - you will find there is a great range of organic sprays available now. Take in a leaf so they can see what you need the spray for.

If you have a removable shower head and your tree is easily moved around, try placing the tree in your shower and washing the leavings with medium pressure cool water to get rid of the bulk of them and to clean up most of the webbing. These guys hate water and that's why they are able to take over like this indoors, because there is no wind or rain. when washing, try and wash the underside of the leaves as well because that's where they like to hide. This will only reduce their numbers to a manageable amount and clean up the webbing, you will still need to use some sort of insecticide to finish them off as recommended by Evan. If you have any other plants in your house and especially in the same room/area you may want to examine them as well because these guys love to travel. From the looks of things this is a pretty serious infestation and you should deal with it quickly because it wont be long before the tree starts to lose the battle and starts to decline.