I spent several hours yesterday trying to identify a new disease that was showing up on my Ponkan mandarin fruits. Several of the fruits had developed a spot about 1/4 inch in diameter where the peel had become sunken, thin, light brown/tan --fruit flies were swarming around the spots and you could see the interior fruit.

After hours of looking at diseases, I could find nothing--very few even show up on green fruit, so I decided to remove one of the fruits and look at the lesion more carefully. As I peeled the infected spot, there was a small black spot about 1/8 inch across, but the flesh of the fruit around the spot looked normal. I took my knife and began to cut out the spot--that is when I finally recognized the disease-- BBitis!

A friend of mine had come over a couple days ago with his young son for dinner. His son brought over his new BB gun. He ask where he could shoot it and I told him he could shoot toward the wood fence in the back. We did not pay attention to what he was shooting--it was my mandarins! Fortunately he only shot 3 or 4 of them before he moved on the something else.

Maybe a swimming lesson for your friend's young son?

I think he needs a bit more guidance--both his dad and I were not paying attention when we should have been.

It was sort of funny to me that I spent several hours looking at diseases of citrus fruit trying to find one that matched what looked like a sudden decay spot that appeared on my mandarins-- I was relieved to find out that it was just a BB. There were only 4 fruit that were "infected".

BBitis, Thanks for my laugh of the day!

I agree with the swimming lessons.

But kids will be kids. I remember my friend and I standing in her neighbors yard shooting her BB gun back into her yard at a coffee can on her patio. We never thought about the 6 ft windows right behind the can. Laura blamed me for shooting the hole through the window, to this day I think it was her...

And why did her parents give a little girl a BB gun? She ended up becoming a fashion model...