bringing my three year old ficus out for the spring, i noticed stickydew on the ground in the house and when brought outside around them both. one has noticable ants.after tx for aphids with insecticidle soap, and washing both off i found scale on one, the one without ants. I find no scale on the ant infested one the scale infested one, they are truely everywhere on it,should i discard it? i've read about treatment with lady bugs, and good parisites in the soil What about the ants? does the tx with lady bugs and soil parasites bring a different batch of pests and problems? will a periodic tx prevent scale and aphid problems in the future? i'm so attached to my ficus. i'd like to get them well and prevent further infestation. thank you dpj
The scale infested ficus can be treated, BUT it can be a dire task. It will take a LOT of work, time and patience, because if you miss any of the scale, and some you can't even see before they make the protective coverings you now can see, they will come back again. Personally, I would toss it and get another HEALTHY one to love. The scale can get on your other plants too. To help prevent that, make sure it's not anywhere near the others. Of course, if any of the transparent scale happen to on your clothes, you can unknowingly transport them to your other plants. If you want to try and save your ficus, one way is rubbing alcohol mixed with water (2 to 8) in a spray bottle, complete coverage is the key. Something you would need to do at least once, or twice a week for 3 or more weeks, could even be months if they keep coming back because some were missed. The aphids are I believe hanging around with the aphids to get the honeydew they are secreting from the plants juices. I saw both ants and aphids on my sunflowers leaves I had growing one time. A good hosing outdoors or a soapy water mix will knock them all off. Just make sure you get them all, keep checking. To help prevent further infestations, always ck any plant your getting for pest and or diseases. Get to know the signs of an unhealthy plant, or get to know what most common indoor plant pest look like which should help you pick better plants. Putting plants outside can also be a risk as well.
