Calling all houseplant experts

[chameeeleon]

I'm not much of a green thumb when it comes to houseplants, and I need some help identifying a suspected pest on a Schefflera Arboricola I purchased yesterday for my (future) cham's enclosure.
The plant looks pretty healthy overall, but when I looked closer at the stems, there are these weird brown bump things that I think may be scales (but what do I know?). I cleaned the whole plant yesterday when I brought it home, but I didn't notice the bumps until today. Also I'm keeping it away from my other plants for now in case it is a pest or disease.

Zoomed out

Close Up 1

Close Up 2 (from another shot than #1)

Tiny brown dots on leaf bottoms that may be completely unrelated

Sickly looking new growth

Whole plant

PS I'd like to suggest a special forum category for plant issues and/or equipment issues that are chameleon related (issues like "help! my new mister just broke")

 

[leedragon]

I'm not much of a green thumb when it comes to houseplants, and I need some help identifying a suspected pest on a Schefflera Arboricola I purchased yesterday for my (future) cham's enclosure.
The plant looks pretty healthy overall, but when I looked closer at the stems, there are these weird brown bump things that I think may be scales (but what do I know?). I cleaned the whole plant yesterday when I brought it home, but I didn't notice the bumps until today. Also I'm keeping it away from my other plants for now in case it is a pest or disease.

Zoomed out

Close Up 1

Close Up 2 (from another shot than #1)

Tiny brown dots on leaf bottoms that may be completely unrelated

Sickly looking new growth

Whole plant

PS I'd like to suggest a special forum category for plant issues and/or equipment issues that are chameleon related (issues like "help! my new mister just broke")

oh, thats looks like scale insects, I am dealing with those litle bastards myslef! a quick fix is to let lose a lot of lady bugs and let them eat those bastards, other wise, there are some thing you can use, like rubbing alcohol, google a litle, there are some clips on youtube of how to treat it

 

[SaintJimmy]

Those damn things near killed my last two ficuses. Which are now outside.

Every single warehouse plant I've bought (from Home Depot or any Nursery that is incompetent at keeping plants... ugh) has those.

Scrape them gently off with a paper towel... make sure there are none left and carefully check!!

 

[chameeeleon]

Darn, I was hoping it wasn't scales, but at least I can get rid of them now that I know. Do you think it's worth trying to save the plant or should I just return it?

 

[repdog]

Its not hard to get rid of them if you want to take the time to work on it. But it might be easier for you to return it. It might take a couple of weeks to rid of them so depends on how fast you need the plant to be in the cage. I just bought two new plants yesterday for my cages. Had to go to Steins as around here there is nothing else this time of year.

 

[hobbywhelmed]

If they're scale insects, you can remove them after touching them with a Q-tip wet with rubbing alcohol. They're easy to lift off then, even if you just want to do it as a test before returning the plant.

Actually, though from the vertical lines bordering the spots on the 2nd closeup, it looks more like the initial "woodification" of the stems starting to take place.

The problems on the leaves are probably unrelated. Perhaps it needs fertilizer or has a mite infestation. Hard to tell from the photos.

 

[reptileguy112]

Yes that could work, I would just keep a separate small cage to keep plants with pests in that has a bunch of lady bugs in it. The Q-tip is also effective but will take forever.Those leaves look just fine and so does the new growth. I don't know much about scale insects but it just looks like it is getting bark to me.

 

[Chase]

Honestly, I think it is just growing bark. The reason I say that is from the first picture, and from experience watching it happen.

If you look at the other side of the branch on the first picture, you can see it happening. I have schefflera that got so large that I planted them outside and retired them from chameleon cages, hoping to propagate them in the future, and they are almost brown on their trunks from "barking".

The new growth looks fine, and the browning on the older leaves are from them dying and falling off (naturally, I'd say, and not from any other cause). Is the soil in the pot like a solid rock, or is it loose?

Chase