Hi All! I've had my Silver Queen plants for ages, and they've always occasionally had tiny clear drops of sticky dew, but no apparent scale or other pests. Is this normal for this species? Thank you for your help!

Hopefully you are just seeing extrafloral nectaries.

Thank you, Purpleinopp! I had never heard of extraflora nectaries until you said that, so I looked it up and found a list of plants that have EFNs, and I don't see Aglaonema on the list... so maybe I'm not that lucky ;-) In pictures of plants with EFNs, it shows little appendages which have the glands that secrete the liquid, and in this case, there are none of those. I gave it an alcohol bath and sprayed with dish soap and water. It's weird because I've often seen this "dew" on Aglaonema over the many years, and I know what scale looks like, but this is different. The drops are extremely tiny and clear, and I never see any scale attached anywhere. It's odd. Not sure if I should keep it or chuck it.

Happy to suggest. Not all extrafloral nectaries are on appendages. If you don't see dots or feel bumps, it's probably that and not scale or anything to worry about.

If everything is otherwise healthy, I'd keep it.

I would too. Pests are visible, or make visible damage. Are you able to add a pic or two?

Thank you both for your opinions and advice! OK, I'll keep an eye on it and not worry otherwise Yes, purpleinopp, I'll take a pic tomorrow.

I'm sorry it took my a couple days to get back. When I went to take the picture, I saw that the alcohol and dish soap treatment had removed all the sticky drops, so I didn't get a picture. I'm glad to see they're gone! If they come back, I'll get a picture. ;)

Thanks for the update! If it was just nectar, water would do the trick. You could try that first next time.

Dish soap is not the same as insecticidal soap.

Thank you for the tip! I had read that dish soap will keep the plant too slipper for scale to traverse in their traveling stage, but not sure how well it works, but I figured it couldn't hurt! Thanks for all your input!

It sounds like guttation which is sap that oozes from stomata (special cells that open and close for gaseous exchange). It's a harmless physiological response to cool temperatures and high humidity with moist soil. Change any of those and the guttation declines or stops.

I find that Aroids are the most frequent plants to do it.

That's good to bring up, guttation. I've not noticed Ags making sticky guttation. But I don't claim to notice everything that every plant does. Guttation that I notice usually manifests as a much larger drop of water, and is usually noticed at the leaf tip. That usually only happens outside here. Unless the windows are open, it would be unusual for indoor air to be that humid. That is usual here because my windows are open whenever it's between about 58-85. But you see I said usually to everything. I try to avoid using too much strong "never" or "always" language for any plant. Even the ones I've had for 40 yrs. I've only seen the potted side of those potted plants, and in only a few locations.