Schefflera Umbrella tree

[beatlesfan60]

My question, is their a way to control the sap and it gets small black spots under the leaves, are these bugs ? I wipe the leaves down and they come off, is there a way to keep them off without having to clean each leaf ?

[rainbowgardener]

Hard to tell without seeing them. Are they simple flat spots or do they have any dimension to them? I'm thinking the black spots are either the insect droppings or sooty mold.

But I'm thinking anything you do is going to involve cleaning all the leaves. A good general treatment for insects is soapy water spray -- a little bit of real soap (NOT detergent which burns leaves, dishwashing liquid is detergent) in water sprayed on top and undersides of all the leaves.

[beatlesfan60]

Hard to tell without seeing them. Are they simple flat spots or do they have any dimension to them? I'm thinking the black spots are either the insect droppings or sooty mold.

But I'm thinking anything you do is going to involve cleaning all the leaves. A good general treatment for insects is soapy water spray -- a little bit of real soap (NOT detergent which burns leaves, dishwashing liquid is detergent) in water sprayed on top and undersides of all the leaves.

Do you know what brand of real soap and what about the sap ?

[a0c8c]

Ivory soap works real well, and it's what my nursery recommends.