Prenma - White Substance on Branches

[Hermes33]

I had to travel for an extended period and my prenma did not do so well. Can anyone tell me what this white substance is on the branches? It’s almost the consistency of mealy bug residue I used to get on my dragon blood trees.

 

[OTown]

That loos like scale. Based on the withered leaves, this tree is not happy.

 

[Russ1]

Mealy bug..

 

[Hermes33]

That loos like scale. Based on the withered leaves, this tree is not happy.

No it is not happy…. They never are when I go on vacation. :-/ I usually lose a couple. People can’t take care of properly.

 

[Hermes33]

Mealy bug..

I was hoping not but it came back on my canary island dragon blood trees. Will tree I suppose with neem and pray. Thanks!

 

[Russ1]

Mealy bug has a kind of waxy coating that is hard to penetrate. I would try to get them off by hand first then spray. Alcohol may work but I would try it on a few leaves that you don't care about first, Portulacaria don't like it.

 

[ShadyStump]

I've sprayed various trees with diluted alcohol before. In summer time there were almost no problems at all because it evaporated as soon as it did its job. In winter, however, I started losing trees because of it. In SoCal your experience may be different, but be careful.

A q-tip with alcohol is very effective for killing mealybugs one at a time. Just a tedious way to go about it.
Usually in winter I spray with a tobacco tea. Kills anything with a nervous system, a little bit of discoloration occasionally, highly effective. This year I'm avoiding it, though. We were able to collect some wolf spiders and ladybugs for the trees, so I'm hoping to see how good a job they do.