It has been 20 years since I had scales on a houseplant. Now my 10 year old "sheffie" has been dropping leaves. Upon inspection, it has a gooey substance dripping from the leaves. Also, lots of brown leaves. My diagnosis is scales. Most attempts to rid my plant of scales in the past were unsuccessful. One postitive treatment was alcohol applied with a q-tip or cotton ball. THis took forever to finish, but it did work. Does anyone have a simpliar treatment? I have already cut off some of the wildly angled branches.
Help,
Mary
scales and houseplants
scale is usually visible to the naked eye. if you don't see anything resembling scale, it could be something else. the ideal thing would be to take it outside and give it a good spray of castile soap and water. if it is scale, you can spray with a generic pam cooking spray to smother the scale. you will probably lose most or all of the leaves though. on the good side, you can cut it back and it will come back healthier than ever.
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