My palm houseplant has got these strange white dots / bits all over the base of the leaves. Some of the leaves & clustered around the stem. Some of the leaves are now falling out. Does anyone know what this is & how I can get rid of it?
Many thanks x

Your 'palm' is Dracaena marginata, not really a palm at all.

The white spots are Mealybugs. Mealybugs are hard to get rid of as the baby mealys can hide almost anywhere: the pores of the pot, the grain in wooden tables or floors...

Spray the plant with Insecticidal Soap then wash the little corpses off with a garden hose or shower sprayer. You will have to keep at it. Sadly, you may never get rid of them completely and they will spread to other plants.

Thanks x

Hi Haley,

I agree that your "Palm" is not actually a palm tree but rather Dragon Tree (Dracaena reflexa var. angustifolia) which is a common houseplant that has the growth appearance of a palm. I have one planted in the ground in my garden and a couple in containers.

I agree with Daisy about those pests on your plant; if those white specks don't move or fly (white flies) and look like little cotton blobs, they are mealybugs. When I don't have insecticidal soap handy, I use cotton swabs (Q-tips) dipped in common rubbing alcohol (Isopropyl Alcohol) to get rid of minor infestations. Just dip the cotton swab in the alcohol and wipe the white blobs off the leaves, stems, etc.

Here's an article from our Learning Library with a list of houseplant pests; if you scroll down the page it talks about mealybugs: https://garden.org/learn/artic...

Very helpful thank you so much x

The key to successfully treating mealybugs (and other plant pests) is to get complete and thorough coverage with whatever you use to treat them. For smaller plants, inverting the plant and swirling the foliage around in a container or sink filled with the soap and/or alcohol is ideal.

For larger plants, spray all leaf and stem surfaces until they are literally dripping wet so that the solution penetrates all tiny crevices where the juveniles hide. Wiping doesn't get into the crevices and regular spraying creates spaces between droplets and often fails to make direct contact with some of the invisible crawlers. It's a messy task, but if you are really thorough, a second treatment is rarely necessary.

From this 1 pic, I'm not sure it's not aphids on this Dracaena marginata. If it's aphids, I would not be afraid of not being able to get rid of them w/o chemicals. I've never had aphids persist past mechanical efforts to remove. If it's mealybug, much harder to eradicate.