Master Gardener: What is this white substance on my houseplant?

Q. I’ve noticed this white substance on my majesty palm, which is an indoor plant. I wipe them off, but they keep coming back. What is it and how can I get rid of it?

Cottony cushion scale is a common houseplant pest. It also appears on outdoor plants, particularly citrus. It is a soft-bodied sucking insect that likes to hang out near the base of leaf petioles or, in the case of palms, in the nooks and crannies of the growing tips. The body of the insect is orange-brown, but the large white egg sac is the recognizable part.