Question
Hi Darlene,

I am the owner of a ficus benjamina tree with a corkscrew trunk and a beautiful ball of green at the top. The shop I bought this from a month ago was keeping it outside in a semi filtered light. I have brought it home facing two northern and one eastern window and minimal leaf loss was noticed. Now the shop had this tree for two or three years and he was pruning it by shearing. He had just pruned it before I bought and this is why I am seeing a lot of green leafs coming out of outside branches :-). I tried to fix some of the pruning by shearing mistakes (retouching) as well as remove some dead branches that were obscuring the centre. New leafs are continuing to grow on the outside, I am trying to reposition these fine branches where they would fill the green ball and add the mass without having to cut them. Now here are two problems I noticed:

In the centre of the tree, on the biggest v shape branch, there is some brown yellowish material that looks like a  half grown human beard for example. I am not sure if this is fungus or natural occurring moth that has gone dry or even a parasite secretion. I can also notice that this branch looks a bit humid and dark.

Out of a cutting in that same V shape branch, on an early morning, I noticed ants are coming out from an opening. I also noticed that one of the ants was much larger than the others and managed to kill it (were I so lucky to find the queen?)

Should I care about that moth/fungus/secretion so much? Should I remove it to give the middle branch a better condition?

I am also noticing that most of the new branches are very thin and do not emerge from the center of the ball. Can I overcome that in any way? Please let me know if any pictures are required.

Answer
Mr. Amin,

Ficus is a very fast grower. I would go in and thin it out as much as possible so you can see what is going on. If you send me a picture I may be able to help you identify the yellow thing in the middle. I do reccommend that you get an insecticide to eradicate the ants as soon as possible.

Email me back the pictures and I will advise you further.