Peace Lily (Spathiphylum sp.) problem

I have had several Peace Lilies for a number of years. I appreciate their quiet beauty and how simple they are to care for. In the past six months I have started watering them more faithfully and feeding them with Shultz 10-15-10 Plant Food Plus. Amazing how those plants grow with a little attention now that I'm home with the new bambino!

The problem lies with a lily I was given about two years ago. It came from the florist way too big for it's pot. I moved it to a larger pot which it has more or less filled by now. It has been in a sunny window most of the summer and has given me a number of blooms. It seems to develop a number of yellow leaves inbetween watering/feedings if I wait much longer than a few days. I've been planning to repot it yet again, or at least divide it into several smaller plants.

Then last night I noticed several white fuzzy spots of a few leaves. The spots have a silk-like quality to them, like a spider web or a cocoon, although they don't seem to have any substance to them like a larve inside. The spots are eating through the leaf to the other side. I have only noticed the spots on 3 or 4 leaves so far.

So the questions:

What are those spots? I have never seen them and I've had these sort of lilies for a numbers under a number of conditions. Fungus? Pest? I haven't noticed any critters yet. Should I just get rid of the affected leaves and go ahead and divide as planned or should I wait to see what happens with the rest of the plant?

I'll try to add a picture of the spots later this evening.

Thanks ahead of time for your insight. I have really enjoyed reading and learning from your comments on other posts and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this one!

Could be mealy bugs. Here are some images from google.com
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%2B%22mealy+bugs%22&sa=N&tab=wi

If that's what it is, and you've caught it early, then I've had luck with wiping the leaves with a paper towel soaked with rubbing alcohol. Also, you can use a cotton swab dipped in alcohol for any hard to reach crevices in the stems of the leaves where they also like to hide. You can also wash the plant with an insecticidal soap. You will need to watch it to see if they come back and treat again. A really bad infestation may have them in the soil on the roots.

Good luck with whatever it is!

More questions:

"Wiping the leaves with a paper towel soaked with rubbing alcohol." Wow - all the leaves? or just theaffected ones?

insecticidal soap - any recomendations? HOw do I use it?

Here's a pic of the problem areas.

I might me wrong, but looking at your picture it doesn't look like mealies to me. The threads are too long and you stated in your first post that there is nothing under the threads which is not true for mealies.
I do not know what it is but I sure hope You don't have sclerotinia fungus which could be bad news. Did you see white threads which have like a tiny black head on the end?
My recommendation for now would be to get rid of the affected leaves (destroy them) and seperate this plant for further observation.

Doesn't look like any mealies I've ever had, either. When I had the unfortunate experience to deal with them, it wasn't on my peace lily, but another plant. I removed the leaves that were affected the worst, and then treated the stalk of the plant and any other random spots on other leaves that I was concerned about with the rubbing alcohol. I also kept this plant separated from my others until I was sure I had it under control.

Regarding the insecticial soap, I've not used it myself, but I saw it mentioned as an option to try when I was searching for pictures of the mealy bugs. So, I'm not sure how it is used. But if you have a fungus, then I imagine you'll need a different solution anyway.

Good luck figuring this out, and getting it treated!

I took some of the affected leaves to my local county extension office for diagnosis. You were right, heather_v, mealy bugs. I guess they were just so early that the little cocoons or whatever it is under the threads just wasn't visible yet. The master gardener said to remove the affected leaves and wash the plant with soapy water.

Thanks for your help!

Hmmmm interesting, never saw that long of cottony threads on mealies.
Soapy water or rubbing alcohol should do the trick on light infestations but you might have to repeat treatment 2-3 times in 3-5 day intervalls.

Glad you figured it out, and hopefully by catching it early, you will be able to get rid of them.