I had this problem when I had potted citrus trees. Shortly after bringing them indoors for the winter, I noticed the leaves would get sticky. After a while I noticed these brown things sticking to the underside of the leaves that looked like flat bug like things. After a while, my citrus was devoid of any leaves and died. I don't mean to discourage you, but I'm sure someone here with more knowledge than I could help better than I could.

it's ((((SCALE))))...

sorry about that, but just hearing about them triggers nightmares for me- they are horrible.

If you do not kill them quickly-they will kill your tree quickly.

If the tree is small you can do the old alcohol and a swab thing- be VERY diligent because they will be everywhere. Look in every vein, nook and cranny.

After fighting every night, all winter, with them I finally decided to spray, so I took off all my fruit then sprayed the tree with 'Garden Safe' for houseplants. You really saturate it everywhere- and it killed all of them. I sprayed it twice (one week in between). Now my tree is healthy. I couldn't believe I wasted a whole winter fighting those little ba***rds.

good luck

I have lost many citrus plants because of scale. Important is air circulation, humidity, and not allowing the plant to dry out. It is important to inspect the plant daily in the winter. Once the damage is done its really too late,unless you cut all the branches off and start over.Thats what I did and I had no fruit for 2 years. But today its doing fine with fruit as we speak. Bill

Can this happy to finger limes? I live in Vancouver and this is my first winter with a fingerlime tree. It has a branch or two that has no leaves now, and there is sticky sap on a ton of the leaves and the floor around the plant.