Hi everyone- so I think I just found something disturbing...
Hi everyone- so I think I just found something disturbing on my plant. Does anyone know what this is? #TheWateringHole #TheThread
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I found out it is DEF mealie bugs!!!!! Iām so upset right now. 3 plants are in the trash! I cannot DEAL with any type of pests. Itās almost like a phobia. I found the main culprit though. Now I just have to keep my eyes peeled. Thanks for the help. @MariansOasis @TopAnise17
Hi Tina, I'm not trying to be mean I promise. But, pests are just a part of having plants. They do happen on occasion. Especially if you are building your collection and bringing new plants in.
I understand about phobias for sure. As a kid I would check my bedding every night for spiders. I would take anything hanging off the walls and look there too. I thought for sure they were out to get me!!!!
That phobia lasted well into my 20's. If I got one on me I would flail around go into a bathroom strip down and make sure there weren't more. I'm not kidding!!
I challenged myself with them and now I actually embrace the little fellas. I will actually welcome them especially around my plant room.
That being said, by the way I have never shared that tidbit of information before. I just felt that you needed to hear it so next time you have a pest you can face that fear. That way it doesn't overpower you. Plus, when you face it you feel like a bad***!
I do agree with you that it's Mealybugs especially if you have 3 plants with the same thing. I see a dead one, I circled it in the photo. They look like that when they die.
It does indeed look like a spider egg sac and webbing at first glance @MariansOasis . I can see that as well tricky little fellas sometimes.
If you change your mind and feel like rescuing them from the trash, I highly recommend that. These are pretty easy to treat and my dear friend Marian can walk you through the process.
It's up to you, but like I said, pests happen. Any facing that phobia feels wonderful! I do think it would be worth it speaking from my own phobias.
It's funny though because some spiders would be okay to me and daddy long legs I happily played with. Through childhood as well as other non threatening to me bugsduring the day.
My phobias seemed to only come out at night. I guess I didn't feel in control at night.
Can't control what are brains tell us. But, we can work on it one step at a time. š©·
It's up to you though, no judgement, just a recommendation. Our live are much happier when we tackle those fears head on. Otherwise they suck away precious moments of our short lives here on earth.
I understand about phobias for sure. As a kid I would check my bedding every night for spiders. I would take anything hanging off the walls and look there too. I thought for sure they were out to get me!!!!
That phobia lasted well into my 20's. If I got one on me I would flail around go into a bathroom strip down and make sure there weren't more. I'm not kidding!!
I challenged myself with them and now I actually embrace the little fellas. I will actually welcome them especially around my plant room.
That being said, by the way I have never shared that tidbit of information before. I just felt that you needed to hear it so next time you have a pest you can face that fear. That way it doesn't overpower you. Plus, when you face it you feel like a bad***!
I do agree with you that it's Mealybugs especially if you have 3 plants with the same thing. I see a dead one, I circled it in the photo. They look like that when they die.
It does indeed look like a spider egg sac and webbing at first glance @MariansOasis . I can see that as well tricky little fellas sometimes.
If you change your mind and feel like rescuing them from the trash, I highly recommend that. These are pretty easy to treat and my dear friend Marian can walk you through the process.
It's up to you, but like I said, pests happen. Any facing that phobia feels wonderful! I do think it would be worth it speaking from my own phobias.
It's funny though because some spiders would be okay to me and daddy long legs I happily played with. Through childhood as well as other non threatening to me bugsduring the day.
My phobias seemed to only come out at night. I guess I didn't feel in control at night.
Can't control what are brains tell us. But, we can work on it one step at a time. š©·
It's up to you though, no judgement, just a recommendation. Our live are much happier when we tackle those fears head on. Otherwise they suck away precious moments of our short lives here on earth.
@SuperbRaspfern Oh Iām so glad you talked about this, because Tina @Luckeecharm1 I have a similar story. I was very scared of insects when I was young, and I grew up in a very old house built in the late 1800ās with a large overgrown gardenā¦so, not the best place if they give you the heebie jeebies š
But itās impossible to live bug-free, in any home or on our plants!
It was a control thing for me too, and usually only came out at night. One thing that helped me along the way was naming them, &/or assigning jobs. I started with spiders. I canāt count how many āCharlotteāsā we had.
And in my worm composting bin, a clever spider made her home directly under the lid, so any fruit flies that might have been attracted to it, flew into the air holes and directly into her trap. My kiddo named her Twighlight Meadow Sunbeam. And I would call her my employee, since she did such a great job āworkingā for me š
It was a control thing for me too, and usually only came out at night. One thing that helped me along the way was naming them, &/or assigning jobs. I started with spiders. I canāt count how many āCharlotteāsā we had.
And in my worm composting bin, a clever spider made her home directly under the lid, so any fruit flies that might have been attracted to it, flew into the air holes and directly into her trap. My kiddo named her Twighlight Meadow Sunbeam. And I would call her my employee, since she did such a great job āworkingā for me š
@SuperbRaspfern @DreamMachine WoW! Thanks for sharing something so personalized with me. It really mattered! Iāve really been contemplating to treat the 4 other plants (besides the ones I tossed) I found them on. I really had to look, but yes I found more. Uuggghhhhhh!!! Iāve moved them in isolation, for now. I have til the morning to decide. Iāve given myself that timeframe. I will sleep on it. Really appreciate both of your stories. ā¤ļø
@SuperbRaspfern @Luckeecharm1 it didnāt help that my mother grew up on a farm in the country and weād just hear her say, āoh, you city girls!ā
Whose fault is that hmm, mother? š I totally would love my own pony, and black angus calf, and corn fields to run through š¤Ŗ
Ooh, another thing that helped me with the flying insects is raising mason bees! Theyāre amazing, very docile (solitary, but okay to live in the same housing as other bees, so theyāre not all denfensive about the hive), plus they are such better pollinates than honey bees! (If you have outdoor space, Tina.) Honey bees will meticulously take all the pollen they can back to their hive whereas mason bees just need a tiny bit of pollen per egg they lay, they mostly belly flop wildly, theyāre super messy and chaotic and get pollen EVERYWHERE š
I got off topic. Anyhoo, once I started thinking THEY were cute, and now Iām totally happy with the paper wasps and mud daubers that live with me.
Whose fault is that hmm, mother? š I totally would love my own pony, and black angus calf, and corn fields to run through š¤Ŗ
Ooh, another thing that helped me with the flying insects is raising mason bees! Theyāre amazing, very docile (solitary, but okay to live in the same housing as other bees, so theyāre not all denfensive about the hive), plus they are such better pollinates than honey bees! (If you have outdoor space, Tina.) Honey bees will meticulously take all the pollen they can back to their hive whereas mason bees just need a tiny bit of pollen per egg they lay, they mostly belly flop wildly, theyāre super messy and chaotic and get pollen EVERYWHERE š
I got off topic. Anyhoo, once I started thinking THEY were cute, and now Iām totally happy with the paper wasps and mud daubers that live with me.
Mason bees sound so cute and fun Nadia. My hubby wants to get some bee hives. His Dad has had them for years and makes the yummiest honey. š
We have soo many bees out here I go into my garden and they are sooo loud buzzing around! Love that we get so many.
I've been growing corn and it's as tall as me now and is getting ready to put out silks soon. It's such a pretty plant to grow!!!
Oh boy, a pony would be so fun. I used to clean horse stalls voluntarily at a ranch to ride horses, I've always loved them. I've been pushing for a donkey and sheep. My hubby is compromising and would be willing to do cows. So, hopefully next year we will get 2-3 cows.
Your Mom sounds like fun. I always love your stories Nadia. š©·
We have soo many bees out here I go into my garden and they are sooo loud buzzing around! Love that we get so many.
I've been growing corn and it's as tall as me now and is getting ready to put out silks soon. It's such a pretty plant to grow!!!
Oh boy, a pony would be so fun. I used to clean horse stalls voluntarily at a ranch to ride horses, I've always loved them. I've been pushing for a donkey and sheep. My hubby is compromising and would be willing to do cows. So, hopefully next year we will get 2-3 cows.
Your Mom sounds like fun. I always love your stories Nadia. š©·
@DreamMachine @MariansOasis @SuperbRaspfern @TopAnise17 So, somehow you guys have made me brave. I have decided to treat the four other plants that have Mealie bugs that I found. Been working on it. I just take a deep breath and crash right in. So far so good. Thanks again very MUCH! ā¤ļø
@SuperbRaspfern YES!! I highly recommend mason bees. They donāt make honey, but they are MEGA pollinators.
A general, one acre fruit orchard needs 1-2 honey bee hives, or roughly 20,000-50,000 honey bees.
But! That (same parameters) orchard only needs about 250-400 female mason bees.
If you do mason bees, I also recommend going through Crown Bees. He is awesome, and he sends you mason bees that were collected in your area (in the US), or at least as native as he can get for you. Then at the end of the season, if you have a surplus of mason bees cocoons, you just send some back to him, and heāll send them out to someone else near you!
Thereās very little maintenance, far less than a honeybee hive, but it is recommended to harvest your baby bee cocoons at the end of the season, and clean them, get rid of pest-infected ones. But it doesnāt take that long!
Your corn looks awesome!! Thereās nothing like fresh corn, YUM. What kinds did you plant? My mother and her friends ālostā her little brother in the corn fields once š¤£ Her parents were so mad, but she did go back out and find him again š¤
https://crownbees.com/
A general, one acre fruit orchard needs 1-2 honey bee hives, or roughly 20,000-50,000 honey bees.
But! That (same parameters) orchard only needs about 250-400 female mason bees.
If you do mason bees, I also recommend going through Crown Bees. He is awesome, and he sends you mason bees that were collected in your area (in the US), or at least as native as he can get for you. Then at the end of the season, if you have a surplus of mason bees cocoons, you just send some back to him, and heāll send them out to someone else near you!
Thereās very little maintenance, far less than a honeybee hive, but it is recommended to harvest your baby bee cocoons at the end of the season, and clean them, get rid of pest-infected ones. But it doesnāt take that long!
Your corn looks awesome!! Thereās nothing like fresh corn, YUM. What kinds did you plant? My mother and her friends ālostā her little brother in the corn fields once š¤£ Her parents were so mad, but she did go back out and find him again š¤
https://crownbees.com/
@Luckeecharm1 TINA š„³š„³šš So proud of you!! Like Shannon said donāt hesitate to ask if you need a pep talk or anything! Woohoo, you can do it!! šŖ
@Luckeecharm1 yay you go girl!!!!! You got this. Honestly mealy bugs are the one pest I donāt mind dealing with. That and aphids. If onlyā¦right now Google lens says the Hoya I suspect of having flat mites confirms it. š©š āNever have I everā had flat mites and the sulfur treatment sounds terrible. And you canāt see them, only their destruction š¤Æš³š
@MariansOasis so sorry. Never heard of them. If you canāt see them how in the heck did you discover them? Just curious. ā¹ļø
@Luckeecharm1 You know when you see the telltale damage at the petiole, looks like corking. Sadly thatās how most people find out theyāve got flat mites. From what Iām reading many Hoya collectors prophylactically treat their Hoyas for flat mites. So whether they see damage ir not theyāre staying on top of it.
Yesterday afternoon I mixed up the sulfur spray and dove in. It went a little easier than I thought and dousing the Hoyas didnāt end up looking as powdery grey as I had imagined. Iād like a ready to use RTU sulfur treatment but from what I read mix ing up the powder yourself is best. I got Bonide sulfur powder but it was a mess to spoon out 1.5 teaspoons from the tall container!! š And then I mixed it into a slurry as recommended before adding it to the sprayer, but promptly dropped the dish of slurry, fortunately over the kitchen sink! So started over š š. But then youāre not quite done after you spray down your plant. You have to let it sit for 2 to 3 hours. Let it dry then move it to isolation and then go back and clean up the area where you sprayed it. I did it in the bathtub so I just ran the shower and that was the end of that but then, of course I felt like I had to take a shower and get all of the potential spray off of me!
Yesterday afternoon I mixed up the sulfur spray and dove in. It went a little easier than I thought and dousing the Hoyas didnāt end up looking as powdery grey as I had imagined. Iād like a ready to use RTU sulfur treatment but from what I read mix ing up the powder yourself is best. I got Bonide sulfur powder but it was a mess to spoon out 1.5 teaspoons from the tall container!! š And then I mixed it into a slurry as recommended before adding it to the sprayer, but promptly dropped the dish of slurry, fortunately over the kitchen sink! So started over š š. But then youāre not quite done after you spray down your plant. You have to let it sit for 2 to 3 hours. Let it dry then move it to isolation and then go back and clean up the area where you sprayed it. I did it in the bathtub so I just ran the shower and that was the end of that but then, of course I felt like I had to take a shower and get all of the potential spray off of me!
@MariansOasis oh no! May I see the damage? get some beneficials if you can Marian! Treatment is painless then!
@MariansOasis oh no I hadnāt read down far enough to realize youād already done sulfur š blech! SO glad when you dropped it it went into the SINK š®āšØ
But, I still recommend beneficials! You can get quick release for active infestations or slow release sachets you just hang on a branch. Some of them go for a variety of pests too š The cost wasnāt nearly as bad as Iād feared!! I got my first round for under $50. Almost what I would spend on other non-beneficial pest treatments!
But, I still recommend beneficials! You can get quick release for active infestations or slow release sachets you just hang on a branch. Some of them go for a variety of pests too š The cost wasnāt nearly as bad as Iād feared!! I got my first round for under $50. Almost what I would spend on other non-beneficial pest treatments!
@DreamMachine yes definitely I wanted to ask about your deep dive into beneficials!š For now I really wanted to jump right on the flat mite issue. Iām not even convinced I have a current issue. The Krinkle cutting that the Facebook marketplace lady gave me looked a little suspicious, but I assumed, silly me, she wouldnāt be handing over plants with pests. So Iām not seeing any damage on the others, however the Sunrise keeps blasting a leaf when itās produced a new set. And the burtoniae looks like itās struggling. So anyway Iām going to treat the group I got from FB as if they do have mites. Fortunately they were still in isolation with two birkins. When itās safe after the sulfur cycle Iāll just get the beneficials to keep things in check. Do you know how long after treatment with sulfur that itās okay for beneficials? At the end of the cycle I read to wash the sulfur off. š¤·āāļø
@DreamMachine yes Iāll post a pic of existing damage on Krinkle. AI š¤ said it was textbook flat mites but it was like this when I got it. So either it had mites and FB lady treated it already so damage is old š¤·āāļø. But it could be a recurrence too
@MariansOasis I went a little paranoid a few times too regarding corking on Hoyas. The thing is sometimes itās just regular corking š¤·āāļø Buttttt sometimes itās totally microscopic pests. š The repeated blasting of the new leaves is suspect. Do you have a jewelerās loupe, magnifying glass š or macro lens? If it IS flat mites, you should be able to see their tell-tale orange eggs that are usually around the nodes or stem junctures, under the leaves, in crevices.
A wise idea to just treat them all as suspects š Because honestly there are a *lot* of people who donāt even know about flat mites existence, or any other microscopic pests for that matter, and donāt know to look for them. š¤·āāļø
Iām not sure how long after sulfur treatments you can safely use beneficials, but your beneficial supplier should be able to tell you! If you donāt know of one you can go the DMV Beneficials website https://dmvbeneficials.com/ and they can help. In fact, thatās one of the questions on their free consultation form āhave you used any of these and how long ago?ā It wouldnāt hurt to reach out to them now and see what they say!
A wise idea to just treat them all as suspects š Because honestly there are a *lot* of people who donāt even know about flat mites existence, or any other microscopic pests for that matter, and donāt know to look for them. š¤·āāļø
Iām not sure how long after sulfur treatments you can safely use beneficials, but your beneficial supplier should be able to tell you! If you donāt know of one you can go the DMV Beneficials website https://dmvbeneficials.com/ and they can help. In fact, thatās one of the questions on their free consultation form āhave you used any of these and how long ago?ā It wouldnāt hurt to reach out to them now and see what they say!
@DreamMachine to date corking & lots of other weird marks have just been regular Hoya stuff. I swear Hoyas are like the uncoordinated kid on the block, always skinning their knee, cuts, scrapesā¦. Box of Bandaids š©¹we would call them ā¤ļøāš©¹š„¹ š¤Ŗ
I use Jimās strong readers š with a magnifying glass š too to examine šŖ“. Iām probably going to order a loupe now that pests are more of a thing hereš”. I really have been fortunate that the worst Iāve had was thrips on a ponytail palm that was easy to isolate. Other than that itās been the occasional mealy bug. Guess it was inevitable. I see on Reddit r/hoyas soooo many people say itās just part of having Hoyas. Seems many just assume theyāve got pests and treat regularly. Guess I need to schedule routine cleaning. Whatās in the Castile soap spray mix you make?
I use Jimās strong readers š with a magnifying glass š too to examine šŖ“. Iām probably going to order a loupe now that pests are more of a thing hereš”. I really have been fortunate that the worst Iāve had was thrips on a ponytail palm that was easy to isolate. Other than that itās been the occasional mealy bug. Guess it was inevitable. I see on Reddit r/hoyas soooo many people say itās just part of having Hoyas. Seems many just assume theyāve got pests and treat regularly. Guess I need to schedule routine cleaning. Whatās in the Castile soap spray mix you make?
@MariansOasis I swear I feel like pests can HEAR when a hoya is in distress. Such as, you know how plants make sounds that are out of our frequency range and when theyāre thirsty in particular, they make lots of sound (still, that we canāt hear?). I feel like itās the plant equivalent of screaming, and pests can hear it. At least (and this is ONLY anecdotal, and not scientific in any way) it seems like every plant Iāve ever gotten pests on was either very dry, or in the wrong conditions in some way. But I donāt know, thereās probably lots of people out there that have gotten pests on a plant that is nicely watered and happy.
Did you find any orange eggs? Or, did you find any thing that looked like clear white-ish and very smooth eggs? OR did you find anything that looked like white-ish but *bumpy* eggs? (Egg descriptions first from flat mites, then cyclamen mites, then broad mites.)
The recipe for an active infestation is:
-1 Tbsp. pure neem oil
-1/2 tsp. Castile soap
-32 oz (4 cups) warmish tepid water
But that soap, while itās the mildest you can use, will still dry out your plants if used too long. So, for prevention and routine maintenance, the recipe is:
-1 Tbsp. Pure neem oil
-32 oz warmish tepid water
You have to continuously shake the bottle while you spray, but it wonāt harm your plants in the long run.
Did you find any orange eggs? Or, did you find any thing that looked like clear white-ish and very smooth eggs? OR did you find anything that looked like white-ish but *bumpy* eggs? (Egg descriptions first from flat mites, then cyclamen mites, then broad mites.)
The recipe for an active infestation is:
-1 Tbsp. pure neem oil
-1/2 tsp. Castile soap
-32 oz (4 cups) warmish tepid water
But that soap, while itās the mildest you can use, will still dry out your plants if used too long. So, for prevention and routine maintenance, the recipe is:
-1 Tbsp. Pure neem oil
-32 oz warmish tepid water
You have to continuously shake the bottle while you spray, but it wonāt harm your plants in the long run.
@DreamMachine I havenāt seen orange eggs or the clear white-ish smooth eggs or white-ish bumpy ones either, but Iām going to look in bright daylight tomorrow. And see if I can get a loupe tomorrow š
Thanks for the recipe!!!
Thanks for the recipe!!!
@DreamMachine @MariansOasis @SuperbRaspfern I believe all of the mealie bugs are now gone!! Thanks to you, šā¤ļø
@MariansOasis thanks for the cheerleading š„°