Today I drove out to One Green Worlds nursery to do a will call pick up on a Yuzu & Cocktail Grapefruit. The lady on the phone swore to me that these plants do not have any scale (I had a few bad purchases from Portland Nursery this weekend) and that if they did have bugs it would only be spider mites and black aphids. I knew it had bugs, I saw them when I picked them up. On a more detailed inspection when under my magnifier I saw a slew of unknown bugs and scale. One even looked like a black worm.
I picked the scale off and washed every leaf down with neem oil. But tonight I went to take the plastic bags off the pots to bring them down stairs and I was greeted with hundreds of long black flies and some worm looking things.

Do I re pot and put the roots in a bleach water type mixture and use new soil?

If yes, please can someone give me the rundown on instructions on how to do that?

Warmly,
-Linda

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"The lady on the phone swore to me that these plants do not have any scale (I had a few bad purchases from Portland Nursery this weekend) and that if they did have bugs it would only be spider mites and black aphids."

Wow! That's almost like saying that while you don't have pneumonia, you may have SARS and ecoli. I would think twice before going to this nursery again...or even returning the plants before they infect everything else you have. Just my two cents.

I'm just going to treat them with Neem spray and try to keep them away from everything else for awhile.

I called and spoke to their customer service and they were really helpful and told me to come back and return the plants. That's totally cool of them, I've read some negative reviews of them being unwilling to do returns. I've already invested the money in fixing the issue and it's a long drive with two toddlers even the most patient of people wouldn't enjoy.

This is a very educative experience for me, lesson learned. Don't buy citrus locally in the winter months and inspect before bringing them home.

-Linda

Well,
I use for most bugs a selfmade soap-alcohol solution.
I got denatured alcohol and take 30 ml, I add 30 gramms of natural soap (Potash soap, soft soap) and stir this in 1 Litre of warm water...
And that solution I spray. The alcohol attacs waxy coating of insecests and the soap will deactivate the adhesion of the water molecules, and thus making it possible for the water to enter the insect breathing tubes, the tracheas, making the insect drowning!

That's my first try, and I use it regulary in Summer, just making pest insects life a hell on my trees

Thanks. I may give that a try on the aphids and thrips. The beneficials have not measured up to any expectations whatsoever.

Thanks Steve I'll give this solution a try, unfortunately not on these citrus trees.

When I finally got the guts to re pot and get rid of the millipedes/centipedes I moved a few of the bark nuggets to the side and noticed a lot of white bugs. When I magnified them they looked like white scale. I found them in every tree i purchased.

I'll be returning them tomorrow.

Sigh
-Linda

Those white flies came from gnats which normally are harmless to citruses.

Thanks JoeReal these don't look like flies. I kinda wish they were (and i'm not ruling that out) because the trees are very healthy looking and I want to keep them.

Are these what you're talking about?

http://oregonstate.edu/dept/nurspest/whiteflies.htm

Nope. Those are really white flies. I can't find the old thread about them.

If there are suspicious insects, I would normally enclose the whole plant in a large box sealed with plastic sheet (used by painters) and then fire-up a fogging chemical that kills all insects (you can buy these at Home Depot). I leave the plant sealed for 24 hours. Almost no insect have survived that ordeal. Plants will slightly suffer but able to recover.

But even white flies can be fight with my soap solution!
Just battle them! Yiiieha!