I would opt for something like Bayer 3 in 1 insect disease and mite control.

Its a spray, but It'll work. I spray my large ficus with that so you should be able to spray yours just fine.

Not to mention, the systemics can be hard on the roots.

If it were me, I'd just keep an eye on them now (unless it's really bad). There are natural predators outside they'll help out. I only spray before my plants come back inside.

Thanks, Dave, I just saw that Bayer product at the hardware store.

You're probably right that there's no need to panic, especially if I should be concerned that systemic treatments might harm the root system. Right now the scale seems limited to a fairly small area on one side of the ficus, but my past experience with scale makes me worry that the same thing will happen if I don't do whatever I can to kill them and prevent new ones from planting their little flags on any of my babies. The one advantage I have now is that my plants are so much more healthy than they were back then, so presumably they're better able to hold up against bugs..

But here's something else: Could the intense heat of the last two days have increased pressure in the plant to make sap ooze out of the dracaena's pores? This past few days are the first time the plant has been outside in extremeheat, and all the sap I can see is on the top tuft of the most recent leaves...maybe I'll start a new thread to see whether someone's ever seen it happen.

Rina, if there were aphids, etc., wouldn't I see at least a few near the sap? I really searched the whole plant I've had the dracaena for about five years and this is the first time I've seen sap. I don't know what eats scale, but I don't expect predators to make it over here for the same reason I didn't think I had to worry about insects: the nearest plants on this side of the building are a handful 25 feet away and the trees across the street about twice that distance, so I could be wrong about predators, too.

I'm really unsure about the issue with the dracaena. I have one, but I've never seen anything like this.

As far as the ficus, since you have it outside, it's really not quite as big of a deal as being inside.

Outide, there are predators, rain, etc. inside, they can just take over with nothing to stop them.

First, try just removing them. If you keep having problems, try the Bayer product. I spray my 7' Ficus with it and didn't have a single pest this past winter.

Yes, you would see aphids, and scale too and I think also whiteflies. Mealy bugs could hide, but they multiply - so sooner or later you would see them. Not sure about the web - it could be regular spider...good for catching bugs!

If that ficus was my plant, I would clean it up off the scale before it spreads...using just alcohol (I never used any other sprays on plants yet...). Much more difficult to get rid of when it is all over. But that is JMO.

Okay, I think I'll spend some quality time tomorrow with my ficus and a bottle of alcohol while watching the Tour de France on the DVR. It's the first real mountain stage of the race, so I just have to be careful not to knock anything over if something exciting happens.

As for the dracaena, I'll just check it over every day or two to see if the sap droplets spread or there's some other clue as to what's going on.

Thanks, guys, I feel better already!

and get a loop, I don't understand how anybody can identify insects before they reach serious proportions without one

I believe you mean a loupe?(...a small magnifying glass used by jewelers and watchmakers...)

litterbuggy, careful you don't take a swig of that rubbing alcohol by mistake in all that excitement ;)

rina, yeah that... ;)

I keep meaning to get a loupe but geez, which one to buy? So I put on my readers and use a little 5X magnifier with a tiny LED bulb, which works so long as I don't have to count little insect legs or anything. It's useful for sharpening, too.

My favorite rider got disqualified from the race, but fortunately there's still plenty of drama in the flat sprint stages so long as I fast forward through all the commercials. The next mountain stage is on Sunday and is supposed to be a doozy.

I haven't cleaned the bugs off the ficus yet but I brought it inside tonight so I can do it first thing. Honestly, it's hard to get myself to go outside for even a minute when it's over 100 and the ozone is bad. Grumble grumble grumble....

Update: All is well. I only spotted ten or fifteen more scale on the ficus, but because some were so tiny that I could barely see them with reading glasses I ended up wiping most of the leaves down with alcohol, so things are very shiny at the moment.

As for the dracaena, only one little drop of sap is left. does seem strange. The only thing that makes sense is that the plant's first exposure to 103 degree days was a bit much for it, but it hasn't lost any leaves, so the only result was those white spots on some leaves near the top of the plant.