My ficus that summers on my deck is crawling with ants and it feels sticky. What’s up with that?
A. Sap-feeding insects such as aphids, mealybug and scale excrete a sticky sweet substance that ants love. In fact, ants love this “honeydew” so much they actually tend and defend colonies of these insects like human shepherds tend flocks of sheep. Get rid of those insects and voila — the ants will disappear. If you’ve noticed a blackish smut or mold on the lower leaves of your plant, that’s sooty mold growing on the sticky honeydew. It’s also diagnostic of the insect infestation.
