What Is Ficus Tree Scale Disease?
When a scale bug makes a home on a ficus tree, infestation takes root, and scale disease soon follows. Knowing what the scale bug looks like and where it's located, the problems it causes, how to treat the plant when it gets infested and how to prevent the insects from coming back will help growers more easily maintain their ficus trees. Does this Spark an idea?
-
Scale Bug Description
-
Scale bugs are oval-shaped insects that measure about 1/8 inch long and usually lurk on stems and underneath leaves. They're hard to find because they don't appear to move or look like insects, and in the early stages they're the same color of the leaf or stem. As they mature, their shells harden and turn dark brown.
Ramifications
-
Scale bugs suck out the sap from the ficus tree and leave a sticky substance called honeydew on the surface of leaves and stems. When the infestation becomes severe, the leaves turn yellow and drop off, and honeydew drips onto the rest of the tree and on any surrounding carpet or furnishings.
-
Treatment
-
Spray with a solution of 1 tbsp. of dish soap dissolved in 2 cups of warm water, 1/2 tsp. of soap diluted in a mixture of 1/4 cup of rubbing alcohol and 1 and 1/2 cups warm water (which may need to be repeated about a week later to make sure you got all the bugs), or a nontoxic spray designed for eliminating plant pests. Scrubbing the bugs off with a fingernail will also work, but more bugs will come unless you use prevention methods, so it must be done for every new infestation.
Prevention
-
To minimize or prevent problems, regularly clean the ficus tree; consistently spray the foliage with warm water. To prevent the spreading of insects to other parts of your home, clean with alcohol any clippers or other cutting devices you use, after each trim. If the ficus tree inside came from being outdoors during the summer, check it for scale and other insects before bringing it inside.
Other Bugs
-
Mealybugs look like white blots that turn into cotton blobs after they've infested the tree for a while. A waxy coating and threadlike material cover these blobs, making them difficult to eliminate with sprays. These bugs like settling in places where it's hard to spray treatment, such as roots or the place where the leaf joins the stem (called the axil).
Aphids, which come in just about any color, also suck sap from the tree and cover it with honeydew. They usually lurk underneath leaves and on newly grown parts of the plant, but they can cause distorted or stunted growth.
The ficus tree may have spider mites if its stems and leaves turn bronze then develop web-like material underneath the tree's leaves. Spider mites migrate slowly and form colonies all over the tree, which could signal the impending death of the plant. Dead leaves and other plant parts are around the areas where these bugs are most active. Spider mites can't be seen without a magnifying glass, and they're very difficult to eliminate.
-
Resources
- Photo Credit Wim B (Wikimedia Commons)
