Eww, that's nasty. I had an infestion not quite as bad on some euonymus last year, but I got rid of it. Don't give up. Scale can be controlled. Timing is the key. You can spray all you want at the wrong time, and it won't do any good. You have to get scale insects in their 'crawler' stage, which is a narrow window of a week or less. Check with any good local nursery or a county extension agent in your area to find out when they'll be vulnerable. You may be too late for this season (ours were crawling about , but you can get them over winter, too. Use a dormant oil spray like Ortho's Volck Oil, which is available everywhere. Forget about the cooking oil and dish soap concoctions. They're too unpredictable and may hurt the plant. Spray the diluted Volck Oil at the recommended intervals during the dormant season and then watch for scale carefully next season. If you need to spray plants during the growing season, follow the directions for diluting the Volck Oil to growing-season strength, which is half as concentrated as the dormant season spray. Tina McG

Ficus indica is one of the most prized for culinary uses with its fruit. Too tender for my growing zone though. A neighbor let me dig some of her prickly pear and plant it at home this year, but she has no info on species and has never cooked with its fruit or paddles. I hope to be testing that in a couple of years. ez

Did you post before about the same problem? If you did, the info is going to be same as before... Fungus gnats like moist environment. So if you have many of them, it is very good indication of moist environment. Throwing plants out very likely doesn't get rid of them and you may have many more, since the females keep laying the eggs and they keep hatching. Eggs are in the soil, so you need to solve that problem. I would think that it is very moist around your plants, and together with any organic matter that the larvae keeps feeding on, it is heaven for fungus gnats. What kind of soil are your plants potted in? - you say ORGANIC. Many ppl use lots of bark for holiday cacti. Keeping it too wet is the problem. So is any standing water. Some ppl use layer of sand, not sure how effective it is (it may just fall between the other particles in the mix). You could use mosquito dunks - dissolve a small piece in the water that you water with. You could also sprinkle bits of it on the soil surface but it needs to be watered in in order to work. It is not a poison but biological control. Bacteria in them (safe to ppl and animals) is deadly to the larvae, they need to digest it. This needs to be repeated to eliminate the consecutive hatching (it doesn't effect the eggs that are in the soil, but the larvae as they keep hatching). Keep the sticky traps to catch flies so there is less eggs to hatch, but concentrate on larvae. Keep it clean around plants, p/u any plant debris, do not let water sit anywhere, make sure there is good air circulation. If the soil is infested, that's what you need to take care of (not necessary to throw plants out). There is a product called Gnatrol that is basically the same, may be more convenient to use. Watering from top or bottom doesn't make difference if there is too much moisture, gnats will find it. BTW, over fertilizing isn't healthy for plants so make sure you don't. If you fertilize with every watering (not sure if necessary?) use less - maybe 1/4 of the recommended amount.

It’s a rust fungus that I’ve seen cactus get from time to time. Too much humidity. It happens on big and little cactus, but unfortunately in my experience when rust grows on the little guys it’s a killer. You may be able to try a fungicide, but I have zero experience with that sort of stuff.