Sticky Plants

[Paradalis]

While cleaning Loki’s enclosure today I realized that his monstera leaves and become sticky and had some brownish/creamish colored spots. I was wondering what this was and if it’s something I need to worry about. I was also curious about how it got there. I will post a picture of the plants and the spots so you can see.

 

[jamest0o0]

Looks and sounds like scale insects(plant pests, the stickiness is the “honey dew” secretions they have. Ants are often attracted to this and will even protect/farm plant pests for these secretions.

Often the plant won’t die, but will be very stressed, over so much time the plant can die. Harmless to chameleons/people/animals otherwise though.

 

[Paradalis]

Thank you very much for great insight. Do you have any suggestions to get rid of the scale insects?

 

[jamest0o0]

No problem! Maybe @snitz427 would have a good solution for a plant in an enclosure. I’ve used neem to varying degrees of success, but only for plants outside an enclosure. I’m not sure if maybe there’s a natural predator that could be introduced for them. Other option would be to spot treat them, I think people will rub alcohol or something on each scale they see.

I’m no expert at dealing with these pests though so someone else might have better input

 

[Paradalis]

Thank you so much! This has been really helpful. Hopefully as you tagged @snitz427 he will come on and give a solution, but I will definitely try rubbing the alcohol. Again, thank you

 

[snitz427]

Thank you so much! This has been really helpful. Hopefully as you tagged @snitz427 he will come on and give a solution, but I will definitely try rubbing the alcohol. Again, thank you

Rubbing alcohol is the way to go. Brown scale sucks - such a pain. They have armored shells that protect the adults from a lot of pest treatments - so wiping the leaves and stems with 70% isopropyl on a paper towel is the way to go. Really saturate the towel… which remove the adults. Then I usually run the mister or squirt bottle to rinse the leaves really well. You’ll need to repeat this a few times… like every 2 weeks for 1-2 months, even if you don’t think you see adults. If you have ants, you need to eliminate them first or they’ll just keep farming more scale.

Take your cham out of the enclosure while you treat AND while it airs out. The fumes are too strong.

 

[snitz427]

Oh you could also put some in a spray bottle to really get in all the crevices on the stem - still wipe with a paper towel and rinse, or the adults will stick around.

 

[Paradalis]

Thanks so much. I will definitely rub the alcohol. Do you now how long it takes for the enclosure to air out? Just wanna make sure I don’t put Loki in too early.

 

[snitz427]

Thanks so much. I will definitely rub the alcohol. Do you now how long it takes for the enclosure to air out? Just wanna make sure I don’t put Loki in too early.

Not too long - the alcohol evaporates and then if you rinse it down… maybe 20 mins?

 

[Paradalis]

Thanks so much!