Wasn't sure where this one should be posted. Since I have it in a container...
My lemon tree was given to me back in April. They were moving to a condo and lucky me had room for it. It bloomed nicely and now I have 2 little lemons growing. Everyday I would go out and "stare" at it. I would watch a few ants travel up and down the stems. The reason there were ants is b/c the tree has scale. Not bad. I checked every leaf (well most) and scratched off the scales that I found. Really not many. That I could see. Last couple of weeks I've been checking it every couple of days. No ants and the leaves looked good. Well, today I checked and it and there was a freeway of ants going in two directions! so I looked really closed and found a few of the scales bi also found these white fuzzy ones. Isn't that just another type of scale. They were actually in and around the little pocket don't know correct word) that my little lemons are in. I have some Bayer Advance that I've sprayed on it and seems to help but they keep coming back. What do I do to GET RID OF THEM? This plant will come in the house for the winter and I need to get rid of these scales. HELP!! Confused

Are the white, fuzzy ones cottony cushion scale or mealy bug? There are photos at

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG... (cottony cushion scale photos)

and

http://www.entomology.umn.edu/... (citrus mealy bug photos)

Both sites have good information on these 2 types of pests.

You may want to try tanglefoot at the base of the tree to stop the ant parade. Ants frequently protect other pests so that they can "harvest" the honeydew - the tanglefoot should be effective in stopping them. Since I assume you are going to eat the fruit, I am hesitant to suggest an insecticide,,,,

Also, have you tried swabbing the scale and other pest with alcohol?

Please, let us know if either of the photos above are the right critter so you can get more definitive information.

Thanks so much for the info. Gonna have to do the alcohol thing I think