Plant invaders!

June 18, 2020 2:02 PM

Does my ficus plant, Ferdinando, have scale? Possibly mealybugs? (Are these different things? I am so confused) Here's some pics of what I found, mostly under the leaves where they join the stem.

The on paper description seems to match mealybugs, but the appearance does not look right to me. They are not hard, look almost crystalline, mostly amorphous, and there's liquid underneath. (Honeydew?)

I have physically removed all that I can find, but I understand that may not be a permanent solution. The number of white blobs would suggest a significant infestation, in which case I understand it would be a grim prognosis.

Is there a way to help poor Ferdinand? We've been through a lot together.

posted by Eumachia L F to Home & Garden (3 answers total)

Best answer: It's not scale or mealybugs¹: it's trying to call wasps to pollinate it.

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¹ Which both are and are not different things depending on your perspective. Horticulturally, they're usually treated as separate problems (though the solutions are basically identical); biologically, mealybugs are in the family Pseudococcidae, which belongs to the superfamily Coccoidea, so they're a type of scale.
posted by Spathe Cadet at 2:26 PM on June 18, 2020 [7 favorites]

Response by poster: In one! That is such good news and so ridiculously fascinating. Nature is just the best.
posted by Eumachia L F at 2:38 PM on June 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

Now that this is resolved, may I congratulate you on naming your ficus. I have one called Monica. Maybe they should get married!
posted by ClarissaWAM at 12:09 AM on June 20, 2020 [1 favorite]