Thanks for the reply. I know for sure I'm dealing with mealy bugs and spider mites. On the pothos plant, I don't know what it attacking it, but it's a bug of some sort.

I've seen Neem oil mentioned before. For mealy bugs on Majesty palms, I've seen Safer Insecticide Soap mentioned. I can't buy that locally, so I'l have to get it online. Meanwhile I'm using some Bayer Nafia or some such name. I was using a water/alcohol/soap mix, but I don't think it's doing the trick.

The problem with the Majesty palm makes me sick. This is my third one, and I finally figured out the right amount of water and light. It was a perfect green plant. Now there's all sorts of brown parts on leaves.

Bayer Natria is a product line with a lot of different products, all with different active ingredients. The do have a Natria Neem product. They also have an insecticidal soap under Natria line, and a few others. As gardengal suggests, its really best to attempt to identify what you are fighting and the choose your weapon accordingly.

Neem is effective, but not immediately - it interferes with pests feeding and reproduction, and if you already have a bad infestation it may not be fast enough to save your plant, depending on how far the infestation has progressed. You will need a few applications 3 - 5 days apart to kill an established population.

If your plant is in real trouble Bayer 3-in-1 systemic is effective for both mealies and mites, but I advise reading carefully about all 3 of the active ingredients before making a decision to use and would never spray it inside (though many use it as a drench - do be careful with runoff if doing this). If your plant is in trouble you probably want to spray immediately - outside. The main systemic, imidapclorid, is somewhat controversial.

If your majesty palms keep getting sick, you may not quite have found the perfect conditions - pest problems often become significant when plants are weak, which is common indoors in the lower light and humidity during the winter. Palms can be difficult to keep healthy indoors no matter what the labels on them say. I gave up trying, after having two majesty palms grow like crazy all summer long outside, and then decline quickly after coming indoors.

Let me just add that most Neem products are oil-based and any oil-based product has the ability to smother soft bodied insects like mealy bugs or aphids (much the same way the viscous consistency of insecticidal soap will smother soft bodied insects). And the effect IS immediate, once it comes into contact with the insect. That's what I meant by having multiple modes of action.

btw, treating mealy bugs with a q-tip dipped in mineral oil, cooking oil or rubbing alcohol will also be very effective. The issue with this method is the critters often tuck themselves into tight or awkward locations that are hard to treat directly so a spray formulation that can drip down into these close quarters may work more efficiently.

Mealy bugs can also live in the soil and be virtually invisible on any plant surfaces yet still create issues. You might want to check for those as well and repot with fresh media if you find them or treat with a soil drench. Neem works very well for this purpose as well if you don't want to go the stronger, Bayer chemical route.

Thanks for the help. I did try Q-tips with alcohol, but it took forever and I missed a lot of them. I just took a chance and sprayed several plants with Natia insecticide soap.

The last Majesty palm I killed was one I bought in winter. It did really well until it got mealy bugs. I didn't even know what they were, and so I didn't do anything. That was a mistake, as they killed the plant.

In the last week I've treated the gold dust aucuba by wiping each leaf with a cloth soaked in isopropyl alcohol. That's always worked in the past, but this time is different. It doesn't seem to be working as well. Last year I lost 250 leaves before I got it under control.

Gardengal, thanks for correction and details on neem, good to know since it's all I use these days. Haven't had an infestation since starting a preventative neem regime, but the dog days of winter are ahead so I'm not claiming success yet.

Daniel