Sticky residue, olive tree?

[Creamegg18]

I’m puzzled and was wondering if anyone would know please? On a daily basis, I’m getting some sort of sticky drops/spray as shown in the photos. I thought it was the neighbour spraying her roses and residue coming over to my side but she said no. I have a potted olive tree so was wondering if it’s something from that or something else? Thanks

Aphids. They exude a sticky sap.

Thanks. I found these black things, are these them?

That’s scale insect. They also exude the sticky sap. Get a comfortable chair, a flask of coffee and a radio, and sit down and pick them all off, making sure to clean off all the “dust” which are baby scale insects which may be ready to start migrating.

The only alternatives are systemic insecticide which you won’t want to use on an indoor plant which is edible. Or decide it’s not worth the effort and ditch the plant!

For the future - keep the plant in tip-top condition (healthy plants are more resistant to attack) and stand it outside in summer and hope that the birds will do their thing.

Lol. Yes you’re right about scale and quite a few of them once I started delving in between the branches. Mystery solved! The olive tree is outside, always have been. I found some brown scale too which easily can be missed as they blended with the trunk. Picked off what I could, and applied neem oil mixed with washing up liquid and sprayed the branches - hopefully that would have killed off what I missed!