OMG! Just checked my other ficus b. and it has them too. But much, much worse. I would think it was spider mites but these are only on the top of the leaves. Undersides are clean. Nothing in the joints either. Going to clean the leaves and apply neem and hope someone answers soon. Here's second plant

Ho-hum. Guess these have a good case of spider mites. I've cleaned all the leaves with dish detergent, waiting to dry and I'll neem oil them. And I guess every 4-5 days neem oil for awhile. If anyone has any other ideas let me know.

Thanks Dave. I should have said that I actually use Castile soap. And the concoction I use for spraying is 1/2 Isopropyl alcohol 70%, 1/2 water, tsp of neem and a little Castille soap. Been using it preventatively for several years. Yes, I have Bayer 3 in 1 but as you say never use indoors. I'm pretty sure it's mites. Will give 3 treatments over 2 weeks and if not a significant improvement they get tossed. Have them isolated from the rest of my plants.

Thanks very much for your help :-)

One of my Ficus Benjamina trees is about 7 feet and I’d guess it has well over 1000 leaves.

When using the isopropyl alcohol spay, I could keep the numbers down spraying weekly, but it wasn’t enough to completely rid them.

Im not sure you have mites. Do you have any young growing leaves on the plant? From what I’ve seen, they go for those first and the plant instantly drops that leaf.

I never found a single one on any mature leaves though.

Do the pests move if you touch them? Trying looking through a jewelers lupe if possible.

Thanks Dave. Have a magnifying glass to take a look and will report back. I'm not sure they're mites either. But it's one of those instances with my plants that I feel I need to do something- altho sometimes to their detriment. I bought them from two different places, but they may have been sprayed or treated with same pest control. When I've seen spider mites before there are some webs and they are predominantly on the back of the leaf. These aren't just on the young leaves but all leaves except on back

I've got so many plants that I'm afraid to keep these unless I really get just about rid of whatever it is. Not worth it to take the risk, so they're going if I can't get rid of them in 2 weeks.

Really appreciate your thoughtfulness in helping me out with this. If it's a pest of some kind the neem oil hopefully will help. I live in cold country so they can't go outside to Bayer 3-1-1 them. What do you think of putting them in the garage to treat? The temp prob goes no lower than 48*.

Worst case, I’d treat with Bayer in the garage if you’re unable to rid the pests or you’re not seeing an improvement in about a week.

48° won’t kill them and it’s probably a better option for them than the dumpster, ha!

Hope you’re able to get them pest free!

Well- it's been a week and ficus look pretty good but this morning I found something discouraging. This is so weird. Now it's a powdery white substance that can't be scraped off, still only on the front of the leaf- and I only saw it on ONE. I'm 100% sure that the particular leaf got castille soap treatment and neem oil. It was prominent on the outside and had a brown tip so I remember it. In the pic it still has the brown tip which is no worse. Dave any ideas? I can treat with Bayer 3-1-1 but still not convinced it's spider mites. What do you think?