Question
My indoor ficus is 20 years old, with trimmings is over 6 feet tall and about 5 wide.  I am finding small white cottony balls primarily on the back of the leaves, and always one to a leaf,not in colonies or several on a leaf. They seem to come off easily.  I live in a retirement community, and the plant came with me when I moved from my home.  At that time it shared space with a rubber plant for a few months, in the hallway outside of my apartment.  The rubber plant was removed about 2 years ago, and the ficus has been standing alone since then.  I did not see any of these cottony things while I had the plant in my previous home.  I don't know if this is mealy bug, or spider mite or anything else.  Can you identify what this is?  Small, white, perfectly round, and cottony in appearance.   With regard to treatment, because the plant is so tall, and I am under 5' tall, I cannot reach top  levels easily.  It is also much too large for me to attack each leaf individually.  I would need something that I can use systemically in my watering pail.  I have tried spraying, covering the carpet with newspapers, which are soaked from the dripping.  I too, get covered with the spray, but the undersides of the leaves are hard to reach because the plant is so full.
Because I have several neighbors I cannot use anything with a very bad smell (like bonide's systemic insecticide soap).

I am attached to this plant after all these years of tending it, and would hate to throw it out, but will have to if I can't care for it.  By the way, the leaves seem to be in good shape, are shiny and there is  leaf drop only when the leaves get old.  Many years ago I was told that a little ivory snow in the water would take care of other plants that I had at that time, and that was successful.  Would that work for whatever is no the ficus?  Or do I just give up?

I would be so pleased to get a response to this question.
Thank you.

Rosalind Scheffler

Answer
Rosalind,

Your insects are definitely meealy bugs. I have not had good experience with systemic insecticide and I have found it to be smelly to. What will work is a tablespoon of any dish detergent in a quart of water and mix a cup of rubbing alcohol in with that. Put it in a spray bottle and spray your tree. Perhaps you can find a tall gentleman in your retirement center to assist you with the spraying. You should get the tops and bottoms of all the leaves if possible and spray it at least once a week for a month to get any eggs that hatch out. I usually reccommend twice a week but I think you can get by with once a week. If spraying it is too difficult you can try the ivory snow but I have never heard of it working systemically. It would probably work as a spray. Let me know how it goes. Good luck.

Darlene