no idea. I'm better with identifying them on the tree

This one has a shape that is different from any I've seen so far. I found this on the red lime today. Also seen a small speck and rubbed it, it left a little red streak. I sprayed mine down and used HO the day I got it before putting it in my grow room.

Doesn't look like scale to me; where did you get it?

I was checking out my new red lime a little while ago. I could see it without my loupe. I thought it was a tiny piece of bark but I wanted to be sure. Sorry I can't get a better pic. It's dead. It was about 3 1/16ths long and maybe an 8th wide. It was on one of the upper leaves. The tree came from Hirt's.

Maybe it's thrips? I'm throwing a wild guess out there

You just might be right. I will check for more tomorrow and see what I can find.

Not thrips or scale.

Debris.

Scales are more round. Google an image of a brown scale so you know what you are looking for. I would post a pic myself, but I haven't figured out how to cut and paste a picture on this forum.

Most nurseries spray or drench their trees at the nursery for pests. I think they use imidichloprid. Usually there is a label attached to the tree indicating what the white film is on the leaves.

This whole critter problem really sucks!!! First it's spidermites , then comes scale, then some white cottony looking things and now thrips. Looking at the creatures under a microscope makes my skin crawl not to mention the nightmares!

This morning I couldn't find anything on the red lime but I noticed what looked like a tiny piece of bark on my mango. It was alive and moving fast when I went to get it. I do believe Kvetchlambin was correct. This was an adult one, I had to shoot him with some hair spray so he would be still long enough for a pic, afterwards I burned him with a lighter. Thanks for all the responses. I have came to the conclusion that no matter what we do, or how good we get rid of them........THEY ARE COMING BACK! I'm gonna quit stressing over it. Once a week I'm going to give everybody a good shower and then spray them with HO or neem. That should keep the population at a minimum.

Angela

So sorry I just burst out in laughing when I read you shot him with hairspray. My fantasy went wild.

It's ok Suzanne I've had to stop and laugh at myself. I've never dealt with all these critters before. The worst I've ever had to deal with is picking those soft green worms off of my broccoli leaves. Dealing with stuff I can't see has just about drove me to the nuthouse! I find myself grabbing my scope and inspecting at least every 15 minutes from morning till night, and then when I go to bed all I can see is those disgusting images and then I can't sleep. As of today I think I've got a grip on it. I didn't just burn him, I tortured him for a while flicking my bic at him, every time I flicked my bic he would feel the heat and run. Doing this for a few minutes made me feel better and finally I torched him. lmao! (should've done this to my x years ago!!)

Angela

What's HO?

horticulture oil

Sorry to hear of your bug problems. I've checked over my red lime from hirts, haven't found any bugs yet. Still have it separated from my other trees however.

I had two or three of those mealy bugs so far. Squished them instantly with my bare fingers. Couple of days later one more that had the same faith. But now nothing. I inspect them every day so I hopefully will see an outbreak right away.

Thanks Dave. I don't think it came from Hirt's. I've noticed that my starfruit tree seems to be a magnet for critters. Today I found two of these thrip creatures on my mango. They have both been inside longer than anything else I have. I have done fairly regular sprayings followed by neem oil treatments even though I couldn't detect any problems. With my starfruit tree I have learned now that if I see just one little leaf turn yellow that means some sort of bug. I don't have any major infestations but I'm seeing now that I need to shower them and treat once a week no matter what.

Suzanne I've not had any dealings with any mealy bugs yet but I'm sure it will happen soon enough. I want to hear more about this hair spray "fantasy" that you spoke of earlier??? Please enlighten us. lol

Susanne,

One of our "secrets" is that someone looks at every tree every day; his supervisor looks at every tree every week; and his supervisor (often me) looks at every tree every month. With that system we don't suddenly wake up one morning and find that we are overrun by some insect/disease/fungus. Most things are easy to deal with in the beginning; but when they are allowed to propagate, even simple things can become difficult problems.