Question
amI have a palm tree I bought at a local store. It is large at about 6 ft tall. I have noticed that now tall the leaves have a sticky substance on them and it actually drips onto the carpet (not good). I like he plant, it seems to be growing ok,am I doing something to cause the stickiness? I do not believe it was like this when I bought it.

Answer
Cathy,

Your palm has insects and the sticky stuff is their excrement. You need to treat it to get rid of the insects. It has either gotten scale (little circular spots on the backs of the leaves that look like they don't move but have insects under there sucking on the palm) or mealy bug ( looks like cotton balls in the leave crotches) or aphids (looks like tiny black spots or green spots in clumps on the growing tips) or spider mites (look for ver fine spider webs all over the plant with a strong flashlight).

One off those insects is causing the stickinness and willsoon be causing leaf damage to the palm. I could give you better care advice if I knew what kid of palm it is but I don't so I will just tell you how to get rid of the insects. Fill a quart spray bottle with Rubbing alcohol half full and finish filling it with water then add a teaspoon of dish detergent and spray your palm making sure you get the fronts and backs of all leaves and the surface of the soil. Spray it every other day for a week the twice a week for 2 weeks then once a week for a month and you should be rid of the problem. after that watch it closely for future signs of insect. Palms tend to get insects easily if they are not in a very humid environment. Below is a website you may find very interesting:
http://www.palms.org/

Good luck.

Darlene