My neighbour has strange bugs attached to the bark of his bay tree. It
is like a collection of flat 'molluscs' attached to the bark with a
woolley silky thread like substance. Looks like a collection of tiny
wooly mushrooms with hard shells about 3-4mm diameter.

I would send a photo but I do not know how to post it to the gruop via
google.

Any ideas what they are and how to get rid?

"Bookworm" <terryj [at] fsmail.net> wrote in message
news:1149622341.453208.14590 [at] i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> My neighbour has strange bugs attached to the bark of his bay tree. It
> is like a collection of flat 'molluscs' attached to the bark with a
> woolley silky thread like substance. Looks like a collection of tiny
> wooly mushrooms with hard shells about 3-4mm diameter.
>
> I would send a photo but I do not know how to post it to the gruop via
> google.
>
> Any ideas what they are and how to get rid?

Woolly Aphids?
http://www.ppdl.purdue.edu/PPDL/images/woolyappleaphid5.jpg

Scale insect?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale_insect

If you can identify it then the solution should be searchable :~))

Jenny

JennyC wrote:
> Scale insect?

Yes - it must be. There's lots of different one which secrete different
stuff <yurk>. I've had a persistent one on my maple. All you do with
all of the scale insects, be it unapsis, coccus, pulvinaria etc.
depending on which tree it lives on, a toothbrush and some soapy water
will do the trick. However they all have natural predators like lady
birds, birds and even wasps eat them. I wouldn't bother. Sometimes they
even look quite pretty and interesting :o)