fallingleaf
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Fukien Tea.. SAP??

Alright, so my fukien tea is covered in sticky sap. Its all over the window too.
What is causing that? It looks healthy otherwise. No missing leaves, or leaves falling off. It doesn't have any little blossoms on it though, is that a bad sign?

TomM
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Sticky sappy leaves on fukien tea is usually an indicator of scale - the tiny sucking critters that LOVE this tree. Look closely along the underside of stems and leaves in the sticky areas. Run a toothpick or dampened Q-tip and you should find them clinging. Pick off as many as you can. Then spray with insecticidal soap thoroughly, all areas of the plant.

Repeat weekly for 3 weeks to ensure that you got all the bugs and their eggs.

fallingleaf
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ohhh no.. :(. so where do I find this soap? Can I make it? or find it on ebay? I don't want my tree to die. I live far away from stores. lol .. Sheesh, I have had this tree in the house too! I guess nothing is safe in the house.

EDIT:
I just googled it and it said I can make soap spray.
Last edited by fallingleaf on Sat Jun 18, 2011 10:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.

fallingleaf
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well I examined my plant and didnt find any bugs anywhere. The sap was just THICK. I cleaned the entire area the plant was sitting in and scrubbed the window. My ficus trees that were sitting next to it looked fine and dandy.

Last week we had a horrible ant problem. Ant hills in the kitchen ect. It was terrible. We had our manager spray the entire premises and under the baseboards ect. I wonder if the ants were messing with my tree. Altho I didn't find any dead ones in the sap. The ants are all gone now, the ortho max or whatever it was took care of them. I hope that was what was causing my tree to do this, cuz otherwise I have no idea.

I covered the roots in plastic bags and washed the top of it really good with water and a tiny tid bit of soap. Maybe that was too drastic, I don't know but the sap was nasty and everywhere and I never got any of it into the dirt.

I do notice these ants on my back porch still just not in the house. My Chinese elm tree is sitting out there. I hope they leave my tree alone. Darn ants.

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Gnome
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fallingleaf,
well I examined my plant and didnt find any bugs anywhere.
If you are not familiar with scale insects I imagine it would be pretty easy to overlook them. Adult scale are immobile and might easily be mistaken for a natural structure. Look again, and focus on any lumps or bumps that might be present. Also, if you use Google images you should find numerous pictures of scale for a reference. IME scale are difficult to eradicate, gave up on a Ficus I had after numerous attempts remove the pests.

Norm

kdodds
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If you're more familiar with them, Scale are quite reminiscent of limpets. Depending on color and size, they can be very difficult to detect. The other guess I would make would be the honeydew from aphids. I've never heard of any tree squirting sap on a nearby window.

fallingleaf
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[img]https://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj36/merissalucas/026-1.jpg[/img]
I cant find any bugs. I cleaned up the area and cleaned up the tree. Don't laugh at my twisty tie.. :roll:

This is where the most sap was coming from.. it was everywhere tho, all over the pot it was in too.
[img]https://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj36/merissalucas/029.jpg[/img]

Here is a close up of the leaves.. they have a bumpy texture naturally, right?
[img]https://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj36/merissalucas/030.jpg[/img]

it didn't squirt the sap, the branches kinda touch the window.

kdodds
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Do any of teh other leaves have black spots on them?

fallingleaf
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Location: Northern MN

well maybe just a few. I see allot of tiny brown dead areas in some of the leaves. maybe after I cleaned the tree off, no more sap will come out. I really need some glasses!! haha.

kdodds
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Whether you see them or not, you have, or had, aphids. The sticky sap is honeydew and the black spots are from sooty mold that gains its nourishment from the honeydew. Note that it does not have to be this particular tree that is infected. If it sits or sat under another tree, it's possible the honeydew came from there. I'm about 90% certain this is (one anyway) your problem.

fallingleaf
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thanks for your help! I will google the aphids and treat all my trees. I know the tree it is next too has been kinda sickly lately but I kinda wrote it off because well, its a ficus and they drop leaves if your look at them wrong. My elm, when it was inside in the spring time had fungus gnats really bad that kinda spread to all the trees. I moved the elm outside tho awhile back. About a month ago I FINALLY got rid of those darn gnat things. So now, on to the next bug...

kdodds
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Fungus gnats are really harmless. You can treat with Bt very effectively and use pheramone glue boards for the adults. Or, you can grow Drosera capensis nearby and you'll very soon be rid of adult gnats. Using soils with less organics (or none) is a longer term resolution for fungus gnats.

fallingleaf
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Location: Northern MN

thanks for the advice! I never even thought about the sticky paper! Bonsai trees are allot of work! I didn't think the bugs would still find my plants in the house. I sure thought wrong!



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