Hi everyone! I'm totally stumped by these tiny dots of clear, sticky substance on my red emerald. She's growing very well otherwise. There are some spots on stems, but they're mostly on petioles/petiolar sheaths. Zero on the leaves and no stickiness elsewhere.

I've done a very thorough search for pests and don't see anything aside from the closeup on the sheath pictured below. I can only guess it's scale? Although when I removed the sheath for a closer look and applied rubbing alcohol nothing came loose. I picked a little at the discarded sheath and there was nothing to pick off, nothing that resembled a squishable bug.

Any clues? Not sure if this a normal substance released from philos, scale, something else?

Thanks for your help!