Ficus tree are relatively immune to most common plant blighter , but a far-famed exclusion is scale leaf . When an evidently healthy ficus tree of a sudden loses muscularity , yellowness and expend its leaf , confining review might reveal clusters of brown , to gray , shell - like insect , coated in a sticky gist . fully grown scale insects make a living sucking juices out of plant tissue with specialised mouth parts . Understanding these insects ' life cycles can help keep ficus trees sound .
Scale Life Cycle
Scale insect begin life as tiny roving nymphs call " crawlers . " The nymphs search out lenient plant tissue paper , especially on the bottom of leave , along the veins , or on tender parts of plant stalks or new buds , where they will lose their leg and confiscate themselves . As the nymphs mature , they secrete a waxy finishing that hardens to become a shell . They continue to grow , sucking juices from the plant with phonograph needle - same mouth appendages . The adult weighing machine insects egest a gummy fluid , poetically call " honeydew . "
Identification
Scale dirt ball are not conspicuous because of their small size and habit of colonizing leaf undersides and other less seeable plant character . On ficus trees , they run to colonize mid vein on both sides of the leafage , light-green wood and even young trunks . The adult are one - sixteenth to one - one-eighth of an column inch in diam . Their racing shell are rotund or oval and can be browned , gray , tan or whitened , bet on the metal money . They commonly occur in colony , and are sometimes attended by pismire , which produce them for their honeydew .
Effects
pornographic graduated table soften plant by take out sugars and starch used for plant maturation . Large infestations can seriously dampen plants and get folio drop and other signs of decline . genus Ficus tree tend to show xanthous leaves as a first planetary house of scale stress .
The honeydew they release is a increment medium for fungus and other plant pathogens , which can infect the already weakened plant through the open wounds left by the scale . Sometimes the honeydew make genus Ficus leaves visibly shiny . These secondary contagion are commonly to charge for the plant ’s crash .
Prevention/Solution
Vigilance is the first line of defense team when it hail to scale . Look carefully at the undersides of leaves on Modern ficus before you buy them . If your ficus has been outside for the summer , check cautiously for scale of measurement before you bring it back within . Scale can reproduce rapidly in indoor surroundings . If your plants become infested with scale , you’re able to scrape off the grownup dirt ball with a paper towel moisten with rubbing alcoholic drink . For hard - to - gain places practice a cotton mop . For large infestations , consider using horticultural oil or insecticidal soap with pyrethrins . Both of these have down in the mouth perniciousness to human being and darling . Insecticides are very effective on the tiny nymphs , but the adults are more resistant because of their waxy coating . supply a few drops of dish soap to the insecticide to help sink in the insect ’s shell .
Warning
The well-nigh invisible weighing machine nymphs can well move from your ficus tree to other houseplant , or even out-of-door plants in closelipped proximity . If your ficus has adult exfoliation , isolate it from other plant until you have the infestation under control . Inspect the leaves of all your houseplant regularly for scale and other pests .
