Thanks for the quick reply Cynthia, as a newby I thought that the scale was a mite.
/ What brought my attention to it was ANTS.......lots of them, hence my closer inspection to find out why.
My plants are outdoors under a gazebo, next to a small frog pond, and at present we are coming to the end of winter here in Australia, so conditions are still coolish (48F - 60F).
With so many leaves infected, do you still need to clean EVERY one individually to remove the scale ?
Also not sure if we have neem oil here, but will make further enquiries tomorrow (Monday our time).
Thanks again.