I was given this ficus about 6 months ago.
When I first moved it into my apartment it started dropping leaves and had sun scorch. I gave it a little less light and water. 6 months later most of the leaves are gone and my floor is sticky. Based on what I looked up, it is scale.
I bought Bayer pesticide and fertilizer capsules that go in the dirt. I put them in a week ago with water. The focus wasn't getting any better so I tried rubbing alcohol on the eaves today.
The scale is really bad. There aren't any leaves that aren't infested and there are big groups of babies? on the stems. It was impossible to treat the whole tree, and disgusting.
My girlffiend wants to get a new tree. Can this one be saved? Will the leaves grow back? I ordered neem oil online. I am a complete house plant newbie. Any help is appreciated!
Is it too late?
You could take it outside and hose it off really well to remove most of the sticky stuff. It is waste material from the scale.
The systemic pest control you are using takes some time to work, and the dead scale insects usually do not fall off by themselves. You should find them easier to remove by hand, though.
Yes, try the Neem on the crawlers.
Just to mention....if you move a Ficus it will often drop all its leaves anyway, although the scale does sound yucky!
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