gardenlen wrote:

g'day anne,

is there a balck colouration associated with this stickyness?

if so then it could be sooty mould caused by the sugary secretion from
scale and mealy bug.

if it is one of the above then look for ants as they have a symbiotic
relationship with those bugs, so you need to deal with the ants first
then dose the plants with white oil after the heat of the sun, you can
make a home made version of white oil see the recipe on our remedies
page.

Thanks Len - there's no black colouration, just the stickiness, and ants
are a problem. I'll try white oil.

--
Anne Chambers,
South Australia
anne dot chambers at bigpond dot com