Hi, against my better judgement I have agreed to look after a bunch of conservatory plants for six months whilst the owners are galavanting across Europe...unfortunately I haven't got a clue what I am doing...please bear with me!

At Christmas the Bird of Paradise started to look as if it was covered in white mould in places. I tried to ignore this as the leaves looked strong...However it got worse and upon closer inspection I noticed what looks like white fluffy and quite large headlice in places. If they are creatures of some kind they don't appear to move much. The white stuff is also very sticky to touch.

Any thoughts on what this might be and how to treat it would be appreciated.

Thanks!