It's "scale" The sticky stuff is called honeydew that's secreted from the pest. Personally I might throw an infected plant out with scale, BUT, the BOP leaves are open and wide and probably easier to get at with rubbing alcohol using a spray bottle, wiping it down with cotton balls/Q-Tips. Something you'll need to do every week for a few weeks if you really want to try and save the plant. It can be difficult though to get them all, especially when they are in the crawler stage, which are hard if not impossible to see. That's before they set up camp under those brown things your seeing now. If you use alcohol (complete coverage is essential) including under the leaves, let it drip, use something to cover the soil and keep the plant out of the sun until dry, or parts of the leaves/stems could turn white. Billy Rae

Good Morning everyone. I placed a call to the rescue center this morning and left a msg...waiting for a reply I checked out the pic of the bobwhite and it doesn`t match but the pic of the nothern rough-tailed swallow is very close. The differences are that it does not have the black band across the eyes and it doesn`t have the needle like ending to the tail feathers but the overall shape, size and color are very close. My initial thought when I say the bird was that it was a swallow because of the wings. I looked this bird up on google and it is on the rare bird site. We sit at night and watch these little guys dance throught the sky in groups. This year is the first year that I have seen these so they must be new to our area or the population is growing. I live in the heart of a large city across the river from Detroit MI. I will keep looking on google and will post if/when I get an answer from the rescue center. Well I just got a call from the rescue center and the little guy did not make it.....:( She said that he may have been bleeding interally...all we saw was the bleeding from his foot....may have been attacked by a cat??? She did ID him for me and he was a Chimney Swift. I google this and the pic is exactly what he looked like. Thank you everyone for helping. Louise

Hey there, Gang! Our dark eyed Juncos showed up here in S. Wisconsin early this week (much to my surprise)! I took it as a sign that winter is on its way. I can always tell the Juncos from other birds because of the very dark back and that big, fat WHITE belly! In fact, my first winter I called them flying snowballs because I didn't yet know what they were called. I must confess that I never noticed the tail feathers, striped or otherwise. Ken, do you remember seeing the fat tummies on your mystery birds? Char

kathleen, That's what I ended up buying on Monday. 2 rust and 2 gold. Mine are hidden in the kitchen cupboard. I'd like to find some gold tinted drinking goblets at the thrift store. This week none to be had there. So it's still a work in progress. Once I have everything assembled I can work on that tablescape. I went back to Dollar Tree and got some of the limes too so I can mix up the fruit in the glass vase. Also got a few apple that looked nice so saving them for a plate or basket in October. snolady