Sound like scales, which suck out the nurturance of a palm, and ooze out a sticky honeydew like substance.

Look closely at the leaves (top and bottom) and see if you see any tiny brown or black looking barnacles attached.

there are patches of brown crust y ish .. and yes the leaves yellow and fall off quite often..what shall I do?

you can wipe with cotton balls dipped in alcohol, or spray with horticultural oil, or lime-sulfur. Wash off the plants first to get rid of the sticky stuff, then spray, weekly. The dead scale will dry up, but stay on the plant.

Scale is hard to get rid of. It's more a matter of keeping it under control and not letting it spread to other plants. I have a lime and a bay that go out in the summer and the lady bugs eat the scale so much that I can't find any, but it comes back in the winter. Maybe this year I will spray before I see them.

Can you bring ladybugs indoors to keep scale under control? I've been fighting it on my orchids for months.

I had one plant last summer attacked by scales (my lovely gardenia) and I just tossed it. Nasty little buggers. I have some on a small potted abutilon right now and it is getting the boot tomorrow because I just don't want to risk it getting on my other plants.

I have my pest control guy do the systemic treatment on all my plants in Feb. and it works great on aphids and scales. Only my new plants have aphids on them this summer.

I hate using chemicals but my plants were attacked to the point of ruin no matter how many ladybugs I introduced.