Question
 Hello and many thanks for providing such a great service. My husband and I recently  purchased a ficus bonsai, I am not sure what kind of ficus he is.  He looked healthy when we brought him home, a couple of days later, upon closer inspection, we found he was kind of infested by scales.  We sprayed him down with a soap and water solution twice.  Two days later all of his leaves dried, turned brown at the tips and around the edges and dropped.  We are down to 2% of his leaves and those do not look healthy at all.  He has a lot of new leaf buds, some were effected, I cannot tell if the others were.  Please tell us if our darling plant is in critical condition.  Thank you in advance!

Answer
                                                            Never use soap on Ficuses!
It removes the protecive waxy coating on their leaves and causes those "burns"
Use any Pirethrum based insecticide instead.
You may also remove the scales by rubbing a wet cotton swab on them.                                                    If the plant was already infested when you brought it home,the dealer should either refund your money or give you a new plant.
Ficuses are non phototropics;that means, the leaves are not capable of turning towards the light.To adjust to the new lighting, they must shed their leaves and grow properly positioned new ones.
A sudden change in temperature could also provoque the same reaction.
If your plant was in a greenhouse for example,and you brought it to a air conditioned room, you should also expect something like that to happen.
Keep your plant in the same position,if indoors, not to close to the window. Infra red rays tend to concentrate right after they pass the the glass panel, thus, creating a micro climate that is very hot and dry.
Good Luck!