My Jasmin tree that I brought in for the winter is dropping a very sticky sap from the leaves. Can anyone one tell me what this is. I have brought the tree inside for three years with no problems. It usually blooms every few weeks. It has not bloom at all this winter. Can anyone help me with this
Thank you for your reply. What do I do for "sucking insects"? I have several orchid plants in the same area. Are they in danger?
Insecticidal soap is safe for use indoors and works on most pests. Some formulations may include pyrethins. Infected plants should be isolated as much as possible to avoid the spread of the pest.
I should add that the insect should be identified prior to the application of an insecticide for control.
Can you tell me what I am looking for? Is that what is causing the sticky sap? I have never had this before.
The following documents may be useful: Houseplant Arthropod Pest Management Least-Toxic Control Methods to Manage Indoor Plant Pests Houseplant Insect Control Managing Houseplant Pests HOUSEPLANT PESTS
Hello there. I'd like to thank you so much for the links you suggested on this post. Managing Houseplant pests was especially brilliant, since it showed clear images of resulting disease manifestations and I was able to identify what was inflicting our Murraya Paniculatus tree (it is a rather splendid one with the canopy shaped into a dome, the climate in Mexico must agree with it and I guess it must be around 40+ years old). I was really worried that it had something terminal, like citrus greening, but it is almost certainly mealybugs. I've treated this with a 25% water/alcohol solution on the leaves (the ones that are reachable from the ground, for now - the higher canopy doesn't show any white cottony fuzzing around the new growth leaves or stems or any dead twigs as seen in the lower half of the tree. I've also used a root pest treatment of 10% concentrate of Happy Flower Fitotoxic insecticide liquid for roots and leaves. I didn't use this on the leaves, as it mentioned that it would cause damage to Gardenia leaves, although they are the choiysa family, but not taking any chances! I'll see how the leaves look after the lowest alcohol concentration and work my way up to the 50% maximum with repeat treatments. As I was spraying, I could see a few little whitefly type insects flying off the twigs. I'd noticed this cottony white fuzz on the twigs and young shoots a couple of years ago, and did some pretty severe pruning of all the affected areas to see if that would work. But noticed areas of white appearing again a couple of months ago. I've pruned back again and now will spray regularly with alcohol as well as treat the root every couple of weeks for the next month or so. I've been a bit cautious with where a used the root mixture ie: slightly away from the basal trunk area itself, next treatment I'll go in a little closer. I'd spent about 4 hours searching the internet to see if I could identify what might be wrong, and I'm so relieved that it is likely we will be able to see this lovely feature of our garden. Many thanks again, Carol
Hi, Carol. Glad you found them helpful. At a glance I couldn't figure out which document you found particularly useful so I've updated the links to show the title of each document for the benefit of future readers.
Hello Junglekeeper. The document link that I was referring to is: http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/insect/05595.html Jolly good for the near amateur botanist like myself. Before I found your postings, I'd looked at many other sites, both from the 'agro/agri' and 'botanical/scientific' information perspective, but my eyes glazed over after the first 10+ pages of data and methodology with no sign of specific, handson, details on identifying the symptoms. That's what was so great about the above site: at my level it is enough empowerment to get on with sorting out the problem. Best for now, Carol :-D
