Little brown insects on my bay - what are they and can I still cook with the leaves (washed obviously)?

[Twinklemegan]

There are also some larger flat brown insects which I think could be scale insects? I don't know what the small ones are but they've spread to the new growth straight away since I pruned it. There also seem to be brown dots that aren't insects. What can I do?

post a photo! the flat ones sound like scale - scrape them off or paint them with meths. The others could be anything - more detail please!

Expect it just means more protein.

Yes, well I did think after I started my post that I should have a photo to hand. Will get one tomorrow and post. Thanks.

pic 1

pic 2

I don't know how well you'll be able to see, but pic 1 also shows one of the ?scale insect things at the right hand side of the pic.

Oh btw I've also got a problem with my Japanese maple now. It's developed very weird whitish stuff around the main stem which seems to be popping the bark off in little circles. I'll post a pic tomorrow on a new thread.

Oh come on someone! I've gone to the trouble of taking photos and everything. Pretty please??!

These brown blotches don't look too terminal - i will check my bay tomorrow and see if it's got any. are the spots just on the top or on the underneath of the leaves too? will look in a book too. Promise.

scale insects normally gather on the twigs and underneath of leaves but can be on the tops - if it looks like a tiny weeny turtle clamped down on the plant it's scale

very impressed with you being able to post pictures

japanese maple - do post a picture, sounds nasty. if it's fluffy then you have woolly aphids, just wipe them off and squish them. If it's not fluffy sounds like something fungal.

Japanese maple

Thanks for your help!

very impressed with your ability to post photos but unfortunately still can't see very clearly. Not much change from my last comments - it could easily be woolly aphids. if you want you can spray them with something from the garden centre but the best thing is to squish them and/or paint them with meths. the fluff is stuff they exude to protect themselves so sprays can find it hard to get to them. there's a really good picture of them here the one on the right: www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/aphids.htm

if it isn't woolly aphids I'm not sure what it is but probably something fungal. If so, you do need to browse some specialist websites.

Hello thefuturesbright. I know what it is on my Acer! I did some Googling and it's "horse chestnut scale". here

I guess it looks like the bark's coming away because the insects are exactly the same colour. Apparently it's not too damaging and if I get rid of the insects and eggs now I should stop the next generation. Result!

oh good - nothing terminal and easily dealt with. just a bit yukky. good detective work.

hmm - if I found scale insects on my baby I probably wouldn't use meths to get rid of them. unless it was a really bad infection of course.

come to think of it, looking at the things i have wiped off my babies, maybe having a bottle of meths to hand wouldn't be such a bad idea after all