Bonsai Leaves Sticky

GreenBrain · Sat Oct 20, 2007 12:38 am

My 30cm Orange Bonsai has been 'sweating' or secreting a sticky mildly odorous substance on its leaves.

I have absolutely no idea what is happening and have searched many bonsai resource sites to no avail.

Theories, comments, solutions?

Thanks.
[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/BreakfastLizard/Image004.jpg[/img]
Sorry about the fuzziness, my digital camera batteries were dead, had to resort to my cellphone.

Gnome · Sat Oct 20, 2007 11:13 am

GreenBrain,

It is possible that the substance you are seeing is the excretion from some type of sucking insect, sometimes called honeydew. Look carefully for any sign of pests.

Norm

arboricola · Sat Oct 20, 2007 1:50 pm

Sounds like you have a problem with scale. Mix 1 part rubbing alcohol to 5 parts water and add a little liquid soap to it. Spray the tree until it's soaked and dripping. don't forget to get under the leaves. Repeat this in 6-7 days to get the ones you missed. Cover the soil with plastic wrap before spraying.

Phil...

GreenBrain · Sat Oct 20, 2007 8:12 pm

Thanks for the ideas, I noticed some tiny flat foreign bodies stuck to some leaves and branches.

I will try the alcohol technique and post back with results.

Thanks arboricola and Gnome.

alexinoklahoma · Sat Oct 20, 2007 10:02 pm

Find a mag glass of decent 'power'

Its a small world upon a leaf that is easily figured out when brought into scale, so to speak. More detailed visual looks will help greatly, IME...

Alex

GreenBrain · Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:24 am

After I've sprayed with the alcohol, soap and water solution, do I leave the solution on the leaves, or spray it with clean water to rinse it off?

GreenBrain · Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:03 am

After the spray washed the stickyness off the leaves I discovered to my horror, a huge colony of tiny brown egg shaped bugs, or eggs; I'm not too sure. I tried to clean off as many as I could with a qtip, I hope that the spray kills the rest, lest I resort to chemical pesticides.

alexinoklahoma · Thu Oct 25, 2007 5:42 am

https://www.entomology.cornell.edu/Extension/DiagnosticLab/IDLFS/HouseplantScales/HouseplantScales.html

This what ya see? If so, its all spelled out in there

Be sure to stay after 'them' as they will keep hatching for awhile. And they can get onto other nearby plants if not careful with keeping stuff semi-isolated whilst infestation is happening...

Beatable, though... physically remove and 'shelled' critters as nothing will penetrate the shells (pesticides, I mean), and use pesticide (neem oil or mild 'chemical') for the 'babies'...

HTH,
Alex

arboricola · Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:44 pm

GreenBrain wrote:After the spray washed the stickyness off the leaves I discovered to my horror, a huge colony of tiny brown egg shaped bugs, or eggs; I'm not too sure. I tried to clean off as many as I could with a qtip, I hope that the spray kills the rest, lest I resort to chemical pesticides.

You should have gotten most of them with the first spraying. Clean as many of the mature scale as you can get, then spray again. Make sure you get the undersides of the leaves. Leave the spray on and spray the soil if you're concerned about that. Soak the whole tree until dripping and keep spraying til you run out of stuff..

Phil...

alexinoklahoma · Thu Oct 25, 2007 7:36 pm

Its not uncommon to have to use a bit of 'force', like q-tip or tweezers/pokers of some sort even, to get the ones that are really adhering, or glued to the plant. Liquid can, and does shed right off of their 'streamlined' adult shells when it cannot get underneath them to lift them off and away. And pesticide usually won't affect the 'shelled-ones' much, IME, and from 'literature' I came across recently...

Curious question, arboricola: does the alcohol (assume isopropyl?) affect soil's chemistry any or other such 'bad' things? I would assume it would dessicate, or otherwise injure, the sensitive feeder roots (???)... I'm just asking this as you stated firstly to cover the soil, and now you say 'spray the soil'. Never done it myself, and like knowing of various effective methods and others' experiences from such. Thx for your thoughts, guy

Fwiw, just today, I found three 'scale' on my cedrus atlanticus 'glauca', and sat for an hour with mag-glass and tweezers going over that dang tree (3' tall new grow-out). Talk about coincidence, LOL!

Alex

arboricola · Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:29 pm

Alex;

The alcohol evaporates quickly from the soil, but will kill fungus and the gnats that go with it. I said to cover the soil so he wouldnt have an issue with overwatering. You have to really soak the plant and the alcohol will penetrate the shell, but it always feels better to scrap them off. Makes one feel like their doing something active to get rid of the pest. And it can't hurt...

Phil...

alexinoklahoma · Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:59 pm

I was basically wondering about the strong 'dessication' of isoprop on the tissues. Just guessing is all...

It *does* feel better doing something - definitely, LOL. I jsut did not follow the logic there for a moment with my dgtr and her friend bouncing all over the place here tonight - my bad....

Alex

arboricola · Thu Oct 25, 2007 10:06 pm

No problem with dessication as long as you don't use straight alcohol...

Phil...

GreenBrain · Fri Oct 26, 2007 3:00 am

Thank you very much everyone who has contributed to the solution of this issue. I definitely have a scale infestation on my hands, and it appears that the alcohol/physical removal has all but eliminated them, I will wait a few days and re-spray my plant to be sure.
Quite a load off my mind, well not a huge load, it's just a plant after all; but a substantial one considering it was not only nearly $100 but also a birthday gift from my girlfriend.
Thank you all.

cheryl989 · Thu Oct 13, 2011 12:53 pm

How do the scale insects get in your home??

rainbowgardener · Thu Oct 13, 2011 2:30 pm

I came to this party late,

but definitely the flat foreign bodies are scale insects and they secrete the sticky exudate. For future reference, you really don't have to spray the whole tree. Just soak a Q-tip in rubbing alcohol and touch it to each one. Gets rid of them promptly. The only thing is, since they are hard to spot, you really do have to go over the whole tree including under sides of the leaves very carefully to make sure you got them all.

luigonz · Thu Oct 13, 2011 2:37 pm

I ahve black ants the seem to feed of the scale insects ..
I use neem oil..
but if I spray too often I get a few leaves dropping off the plant

rainbowgardener · Thu Oct 13, 2011 2:52 pm

The ants don't eat the insects, they eat the honeydew, the sticky exudate. Aphids produce it too, so ants have been known to "farm" aphids to keep a source of honeydew handy. Get rid of the scale insects/ ants and wash the honeydew off and the ants will go away. It's good to get the honeydew off, because it also makes a welcoming environment for a black mold.

cuento · Wed Jan 21, 2015 4:06 pm

https://idl.entomology.cornell.edu/files ... ombss3.pdf

Updated fact sheet link for scales on houseplants.