Question
Hi, my father in-law has tried to get info on the palm as well as I. The plant looks like it is drying up. It also look like it has sticky stuff on it down by the frones that have been cut. There apears to be small brown sackson the cut off frones and the bottom of the leaves. Im tring to save the 10 year old plant. We have sprayed it with Lysol. I have tried to pull all the dead frones off and clean it up. I can send pitures from a couple of weeks ago. Can you please help? I have raid that I can use if need be. I dont know if it has spider mites... My Mom said that it may have?? Thanks a Million
Michael Oswalt

Answer
Michael,

It sounds like it has scale. It is a small sucking insect that looks like brown spots on the backs of the leaves. Mix 3 tablespoons of dish soap in a gallon of water and spray the palm Daily for a week. Make sure you get the fronts and backs of all the fronds.  After a week continue spraying twice a week for another month. That will kill any eggs that hatch. This will also work on spider mites. Good luck.

Darlene