I purchased this bonsai from a nursery a month ago. I noted leaves started to turn yellow and falling off two weeks ago. I thought I was under watering so started watering every other day. I noted last weeks there were tiny white and a few black dots on the leaves and around the base And was feeling sticky at base, figured it must be some type of fungus. Yesterday, I noted those white dots are moving! What are these bugs and how do I get rid of them? I have attached a few photos to identify them.

You have a severe case of mealy bug or woolly aphids. Either way you need to treat this tree very soon. I use a soapy solution, a drop of washing up liquid in a can of water, do it every 10 days. If this does not work enough, then get an insecticide. The tree probably already was infested when you bought it.

These are aphids.

The sticky stuff is their secrete, a form of sugary water.

Kill the aphids with either an insecticide, or a spraybottle with water in which you mix a shot of cleaning alcohol and a teaspoon of diswashing soap.

The sticky stuff washes off in the rain.

Aphids will come back. That is, the ants that brought them will bring more.

Get a large flat pan, fill it with water, put a rock or something in it to put the pot on, and elevate the pot so that it does not soak up water. This isolates the pot and the tree from the ants because the ants can't swim.

Solution 2: get an empty jelly jar, or something else attractive to ants, put it close to the tree, and put a thick layer of boric acid over the jelly. This attracts the ants, they take the boric acid back to the nest, and they all die.

Ivan wrote:

... because the ants can't swim.

Ivan, with all due respect...
You've never been to Brazil!






They do build LIVING BRIDGES!

I do have aphids from time to time on my house plants. But never any ants in my home. Since the tree looks like beeing inside, I am not sure ants are involved.

I guess if the ants were doing this in my pots I would just give up and donate a tree to them.

Something was bringing the aphids into the house. My guess was ants at night, but I never checked their work schedule. I had more problems than just aphids - white flies was one, and spider mites. Putting the pot in water solved one problem, but introduced another when I found mosquitoes growing in the water. Sigh.

The indoors environment is just not great for trees, and trees get wet. Add to that a person not aware of the initial phase of an phid infection and within a few weeks you have the situation the OP has.

Treat for aphids. Shower the tree with cool water to wash it clean once the aphids have been dealt with. And consider giving it a few weeks outside, assuming the weather is not too cold.

Ivan wrote:

That is, the ants that brought them will bring more.

Get a large flat pan, fill it with water, put a rock or something in it to put the pot on, and elevate the pot so that it does not soak up water. This isolates the pot and the tree from the ants because the ants can't swim.

... Have you never had flying aphids? Aphids with wings, My indoor infestations always start with one flying into the room and nesting in one of the plants.

Rorror wrote:

Ivan wrote:

That is, the ants that brought them will bring more.

Get a large flat pan, fill it with water, put a rock or something in it to put the pot on, and elevate the pot so that it does not soak up water. This isolates the pot and the tree from the ants because the ants can't swim.

... Have you never had flying aphids? Aphids with wings, My indoor infestations always start with one flying into the room and nesting in one of the plants.

I have not had these.

I have never figured out why bugs are so much of a problem inside but pretty much disappear a day or so after moving the plant outdoors.