Question
I have sticky stuff everywhere..HELP! What do I do? I have moved all the house
plants outside. It started with one ficus but now 2 others ( I am not sure what
they are) are doing it too! I am thinking of giving up house plants! Thanks in
advance!

Answer
Hi Sharon,

I suspect your plants have either a scale insect or a mealybug infestation. If you have a lot of stickiness in many locations, then the infestation is pretty severe. I know how discouraging pest infestations can be. However, they can be treated successfully even if there can be no guarantee that you will never have plant pest problems ever again. If you follow my advice and instructions, you can do a lot to minimize the problem and make any future pest problems easier to deal with.

Scale can be hard to detect. When they are young these sucking insects are slightly oval, slightly raised, translucent bumps about an eighth of an inch long. They can be found along stems and on the undersides of leaves. They don't look like bugs and don't appear to move. As they get older, they develop a hard, dark brown shell and look like a small mole. As the infestation increases, these sucking insects will secrete a sticky substance called honeydew that falls onto leaves, furniture and floors. This stickiness is the most obvious sign of scale and the one that most people notice first.

The key to eliminating scale is to treat even the ones that you cannot see. That means thoroughly drenching all leaf and stem surfaces until they are dripping wet. It is also best if you repeat this treatment all over again in 5 to 7 days to catch any crawlers (the translucent young ones) that you missed the first time. After that, you should check your plant weekly to see if they return.

Mealybugs appear as tiny bits if white cotton-like substance on leaves and stems. The difficulty with treating mealybugs is that there are always more to deal with than meets the eye. Young mealybugs lack the telltale cotton-like protective coating and they are skillful at hiding in nooks and crannies where leaves and stems join.

The key to successfully eradicating these creatures is to also spray the ones that are out of sight. That means that whatever treatment you select, you must get complete coverage, to the drip point, of all leaf and stem surfaces. If you miss a few, they will live to breed another day.

I do not recommend any pesticides because they are all hazardous to use and not 100% effective against plant pests. The best non-toxic treatment for mealybug and scale is called Brand X foliage cleaner (Yes, that's for real). It is available through Southwest Plantscape Products in California (www.southwestplantscape.com ). Their phone is 1-800-333-7977. It is a silicon-based product so it is very slippery. Its ability to penetrate is probably the key to its effectiveness because it gets into the tiny crevices that other sprays miss.

You may want to try spraying with rubbing alcohol. Mix 1 part alcohol with 5 parts of water and add a squirt of liquid soap. Be sure to spray all leaf and stem surfaces thoroughly. The common practice of applying alcohol with a Q-tip is not effective because it misses the ones you can抰 see. It is also best if you repeat this treatment again in 5 to 7 days to catch any crawlers that you missed the first time. After that, you should check your plant weekly to see if they return.

Never spray in direct sunlight or when temperatures are above 75 degrees. It is also advisable to test any spray on a few leaves as a test before you spray the entire plant. Wait a few days following the test to see if there is any negative reaction to the spray

Something that will make treatment of many plants easier is to consider discarding badly infested plants that do not look healthy. It is also a good idea to prune back some of your leggy plants first so you will have less plant tissue to treat.

Please let me know if any of this is unclear or if you have any additional questions.

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Regards,
Will Creed, Interior Landscaper
Horticultural Help, NYC

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