So don't set it on fire? 😂 Phew! Thank you Tika. I've never grown this variety but I've heard it's a prolific grower! I just need it to survive first!

Agree with Tika. These look like adventitious roots.

Thank you!

Sonya, those are nectaries. They're little glands in the vine which exude a sweet substance to attract ants etc. I have a macrophillia which has tons of these on the vines. Just leave them alone, it's an indication the plant is healthy. You do need however, to keep a close watch for other bugs, like mealies, aphids and scale. The sweet nectar attracts everything, both good and bad.

I spray my plants down proactively ever four weeks or so, and now that they will be moving inside shortly, I'll be spraying much more often. Usually I can keep the mealies at bay fill February or so, then the battles begin anew.

One year I brought a philodendron prince of orange inside (I still have it btw) and it's pot is about 18" across. Well it contained a colony of ants. I must have killed, no exaggeration, billions of them and could never wipe it out entirely. I placed the pot in a spare bathtub, and every morning I'd wash thousands of dead ants down the drain. What a chore it was. My wife kept telling me to throw the entire plant out but I just couldn't. Come spring, I moved it back outside where it's now several feet in size, and probably has a reconstituted ant colony back in the pot. So, the fun continues!

Hi Bill. Spray them down with what, please? Water? Or something else?

For buggies, I spray with Bayer insecticide, but that's only as a preventative prior to coming in for the winter.

I do spray the plants, especially in this heat, twice a day with rainwater I've collected. Just a light misting. I also water them once a day, again due to the heat. They're in a super chunky mix so it immediately runs right through. The medium stays damp, but not soggy. Now that the fall is arriving, and it's finally getting a little cooler, I'll begin withholding the misting and watering. The watering will eventually, once they're inside, be once a week or so, and the misting maybe once or twice a week too. I know I overwater, but the chunky mix is very forgiving.

Hope I cleared up any confusion.

Thank you for the info Bill! I had a terrible experience with mealies and a giant Jade plant that I couldn't save and they are my worst nightmare. I will definitely keep an eye out for them.

That any situation sounds horrible 😂.

I was just watching an ant climb around on my giant spider plant thinking how terrible an infestation might be.

I try to re pot most of my plants prior to bringing them indoors but some years i do get lazy about it.

As always I just adore the information I get from this site and look forward to seeing input from the experts!

Sonya, tomorrow I'll go outside and take a couple pics of what I use in my bug war. Others use different things, so maybe we can all share info.

Yes, Bill! Let's have a bug war thread. I fight the good fight constantly.

And thanks for the info on nectaries!

Now why does Bill Murray with the gopher in caddy shack come to mind! 🤣

We should start another thread about how we treat our plants to prepare them to come inside)

What I do is spray them all summer with Fish Emulsion when I spray with a fertilizer.

I also spray once every two week starting in August a good Al season dormant oil and that usually kills everything.

But as a extra layer of protection, I also use Bonide systemic and sprinkle this on all my potted plants. Works great.

As an extra layer, the day they come in, I soak all my pots in warm soapy water for 30 minutes and then I bring them inside. Lol

It's a lot but I don't get one pest issue by the spring, thank God!!

Bill, I could never throw away an Orange Princess Philo, no matter what it has. They are just so beautiful and hard to find. I have a pink and an highlighted orange one too. One that turns a flaming red, and one in which the new leaves are almost burgundy black before they open. Expensive but so worth it)

Mike, take your post above and start a new thread. I think that's a great idea.

The philos? Are they 2-3 feet in diameter? Mine are and that's, why I run out of room. The pots are 18-20" in diameter and everything weighs a ton! If you lived closer I'd give 'em to you.

Hi Sonya,

Just so you know, mealies on stems, tend to look like white, cottony, fluff, which one can wipe off w/ alcohol on a Q tip (& they leave a reddish mark underneath, confirming it to be mealy bugs).

I hadn't heard of nectaries before, had always assumed these were aerial roots as many suspected above.

My macrophylla has both, nectaries and aerial roots. The ants, when it was growing outside, love the oozings of the nectaries. The plants all get a through spraying of insecticide prior to bringing them in for the winter.

One year I had a philodendron which I hadn't drenched enough and the ant colony in the pot numbered more than the debt ceiling congress is trying to pass. I spent winter spraying those ants and never getting them all. I would have been more productive spraying our congress and senate critters!