Mealy or Destroyer??
I’ve seen people mention mealy bug “destroyers” that resemble large mealies but actually eat them- but I can’t remember where I read that! I just noticed this pest on my aloe, its “hairs” are visible to the naked eye so I’m curious if it could be the bigger one? Has anyone heard of these mealy destroyers and is this one good or bad???
Side note: I believe I’m battling my first baby thrips invasion on my monstera so I’ll be furiously checking all my plants 😩😭
#help #mealybug #mealies #PestControl #pestID pestsAndPlants">#pestsAndPlants
Side note: I believe I’m battling my first baby thrips invasion on my monstera so I’ll be furiously checking all my plants 😩😭
#help #mealybug #mealies #PestControl #pestID pestsAndPlants">#pestsAndPlants
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Best Answer
@SlinkyFivespot8 this is the great advice passed along in our group #thewateringhole by a couple of amazing planty resource friends including @DreamMachine .
1 Tablespoon pure neem oil
1/2 teaspoon Castile
4 cups (32oz) water
you mix that in a spray bottle, and spray it all over your plant. Tops and bottoms of leaves, stems, petioles, top of soil, and you can even use it to water your plant, as a soil drench.
Spray it thoroughly until it’s dripping off. Give it a gentle shake afterwards to get the drips and any puddles off. Then let air dry, and keep out of the sun for a day or two because it will make your plant photosensitive (apt to sunburn).
Neem oil starts to lose efficacy after about 12 hours so it’s important to mix up a fresh batch each time! I also shake the bottle regularly during and between spraying.
You need to treat every 3 days for 3 weeks [mealybugs] or 6 weeks [any type of mite] to get rid of them. I prefer the neem oil because it keeps working for a few days so when a pest takes a bite of leaf they die even after treatment. [Neem oil starts to lose efficacy after ~12 hours so it’s important to mix up fresh batch each time]
1 Tablespoon pure neem oil
1/2 teaspoon Castile
4 cups (32oz) water
you mix that in a spray bottle, and spray it all over your plant. Tops and bottoms of leaves, stems, petioles, top of soil, and you can even use it to water your plant, as a soil drench.
Spray it thoroughly until it’s dripping off. Give it a gentle shake afterwards to get the drips and any puddles off. Then let air dry, and keep out of the sun for a day or two because it will make your plant photosensitive (apt to sunburn).
Neem oil starts to lose efficacy after about 12 hours so it’s important to mix up a fresh batch each time! I also shake the bottle regularly during and between spraying.
You need to treat every 3 days for 3 weeks [mealybugs] or 6 weeks [any type of mite] to get rid of them. I prefer the neem oil because it keeps working for a few days so when a pest takes a bite of leaf they die even after treatment. [Neem oil starts to lose efficacy after ~12 hours so it’s important to mix up fresh batch each time]
@MamaLinne oh I’ve never thought about using a kids microscope! I zoomed in as much as my old iPhone could. But, this guy hasn’t moved since I found him so I guess it’s probably the bad mealie! Thanks for that tip! It’s interesting that he’s the only one I’ve found so far 🤔
@debbiedo @SlinkyFivespot8 , @DreamMachine turned me onto it- I must warn you however that you may spontaneously 🤮when you see them up close! 😵💫😵
@MamaLinne @debbiedo @DreamMachine omg they look terrifying! I just found a few more on my pepperomia Ginny, which I previously damaged by spraying with alcohol even tho light wasn’t the issue. So by killing each one individually with an alcohol q-tip, you’re saying is not going to treat it adequately?? I can’t get systemic granules here, planning to repot in the next few weeks just need it warmer on the weekends. What else do you ladies suggest?
@MamaLinne thanks, I’ll order those ingredients and try that instead of the alcohol. Does it work for thrips too?? 🤞
@SlinkyFivespot8 yes, it does. I can’t remember how often you treat- it’s specific to the life cycle of the pest. One of the other girls I’ve tagged can answer!
You are talking about these: https://youtu.be/M_XicEEBvGU
They only look like mealies when they’re young, yours definitely looks like mealy and I would not expect to see destroyers unless you introduced them.
Ordinarily I wouldn’t recommend something like that for what looks like an indoor plant, but with how the leaves grow on that you are going to have a tough time getting at the mealies in the crevices at the base of the leaves, and you’d also have to be careful of trying to clear them out by blasting with water because you don’t want to overwater that plant. I say consider introducing some destroyers.
If you don’t want to try them, I’ve gotten rid of mealybugs by blasting them down the drain with a sprayer to reduce the population, and then I use something called mighty mint plant protection (shake before using). I generally do one mist of it over the whole plant once a week, and a few sprays over the top of the soil to kill stuff crawling over the surface. Then I check the plant 2x a day (morning and night) to kill any remaining adults and monitor for new hatchlings and squish them. This has taken me 2-3 weeks to eradicate an infested plant, but most are gone within the first week. I like mighty mint because it smells amazing, it has a good mix of things that kill pests (plant extracts with pesticide effects, a little soap, etc), a little goes a long way, it doesn’t damage/smother my plants, and it has worked relatively quickly for everything I’ve used it for.
Another time I had an orchid come with a mealybug nestled in at the base of one of its leaves so it took me a while (few weeks) to notice, I had to pull back the leaf to the point of damaging it to kill the thing with tweezers, then I treated it with mighty mint and monitored it… even though it had been on there for a while, I never saw any more (though that leaf was permanently damaged)
They only look like mealies when they’re young, yours definitely looks like mealy and I would not expect to see destroyers unless you introduced them.
Ordinarily I wouldn’t recommend something like that for what looks like an indoor plant, but with how the leaves grow on that you are going to have a tough time getting at the mealies in the crevices at the base of the leaves, and you’d also have to be careful of trying to clear them out by blasting with water because you don’t want to overwater that plant. I say consider introducing some destroyers.
If you don’t want to try them, I’ve gotten rid of mealybugs by blasting them down the drain with a sprayer to reduce the population, and then I use something called mighty mint plant protection (shake before using). I generally do one mist of it over the whole plant once a week, and a few sprays over the top of the soil to kill stuff crawling over the surface. Then I check the plant 2x a day (morning and night) to kill any remaining adults and monitor for new hatchlings and squish them. This has taken me 2-3 weeks to eradicate an infested plant, but most are gone within the first week. I like mighty mint because it smells amazing, it has a good mix of things that kill pests (plant extracts with pesticide effects, a little soap, etc), a little goes a long way, it doesn’t damage/smother my plants, and it has worked relatively quickly for everything I’ve used it for.
Another time I had an orchid come with a mealybug nestled in at the base of one of its leaves so it took me a while (few weeks) to notice, I had to pull back the leaf to the point of damaging it to kill the thing with tweezers, then I treated it with mighty mint and monitored it… even though it had been on there for a while, I never saw any more (though that leaf was permanently damaged)
@smushface that video was super interesting thanks! I don’t know how I feel about letting loose the beneficial insects in my home so for now I’ll stick with treatments. Is this the spray you’re referencing?
@debbiedo @MamaLinne @SlinkyFivespot8 yeahhh, if youre wondering, it’s probably always going to be a mealybug. And mealybug destroyers don’t usually spontaneously come around without something there already that they want to eat. The kids microscope is great, and actually it was Aly @smushface who inspired me to get one 😅
And for @SlinkyFivespot8 Lauren, regarding thrips, that neem mixture and process is the same treatment as mite, with spraying every 3 days for 6 weeks. With that dilution of neem to warm water it won’t smother any leaves and acts as a systemic—that is the plant absorbs the neem and remains active for a few days, killing any pest who take a bite or sucks any sap out.
And for @SlinkyFivespot8 Lauren, regarding thrips, that neem mixture and process is the same treatment as mite, with spraying every 3 days for 6 weeks. With that dilution of neem to warm water it won’t smother any leaves and acts as a systemic—that is the plant absorbs the neem and remains active for a few days, killing any pest who take a bite or sucks any sap out.
Thank you @DreamMachine ! Already ordered the spray ingredients and a kids microscope from Amazon! That solution is ok to use on any kind of plant? I think thrips are on my monstera but I found mealies on the aloe and peperomia.
@SlinkyFivespot8 @debbiedo @MamaLinne so there are some exceptions to which plants get the neem solution, and thank you for asking that, because I just checked my plant notes and realized that this is not for cacti/succulents! 😵💫
Neem solution is NOT to be used on:
Cacti/Succulents
Orchids
Ferns
Herbs
Struggling plants
Baby plants
For the other plants in your collection that are not what I just listed above, you can test a singular leaf per plant first, before spraying your whole collection. Always a good idea to “patch test” with any product, no matter how natural.
Does your aloe look heavily infested? If not, I would most likely just do the q-tip alcohol method, and be very vigilant about checking the whole plant and isolating from other plants if they are pest free for several weeks. Alcohol can damage the plants waxy cuticle so it’s only something to use as a spot treatment. Because you can very easily overwater cacti/succulents, I would reserve spray treatments for only heavily infested plants. if you want to spray a plant listed on the “no neem” list, you will leave out the neem and the solution will be:
-1 Tablespoon Castile soap (I like Dr Bronners peppermint)
-32 oz lukewarm water
This one will still kill any pests, but only on contact. As soon as it dries it won’t be affective anymore. It’s also not to be used as a prevention-style treatment, only for active pests.
Pardon me for my jumbled and incomplete responses today, 🙏 I just got off work and didn’t sleep well, so my brain is not braining as usual 🫠🫠🙃🤪
Neem solution is NOT to be used on:
Cacti/Succulents
Orchids
Ferns
Herbs
Struggling plants
Baby plants
For the other plants in your collection that are not what I just listed above, you can test a singular leaf per plant first, before spraying your whole collection. Always a good idea to “patch test” with any product, no matter how natural.
Does your aloe look heavily infested? If not, I would most likely just do the q-tip alcohol method, and be very vigilant about checking the whole plant and isolating from other plants if they are pest free for several weeks. Alcohol can damage the plants waxy cuticle so it’s only something to use as a spot treatment. Because you can very easily overwater cacti/succulents, I would reserve spray treatments for only heavily infested plants. if you want to spray a plant listed on the “no neem” list, you will leave out the neem and the solution will be:
-1 Tablespoon Castile soap (I like Dr Bronners peppermint)
-32 oz lukewarm water
This one will still kill any pests, but only on contact. As soon as it dries it won’t be affective anymore. It’s also not to be used as a prevention-style treatment, only for active pests.
Pardon me for my jumbled and incomplete responses today, 🙏 I just got off work and didn’t sleep well, so my brain is not braining as usual 🫠🫠🙃🤪
@SlinkyFivespot8 yeah, that’s what I use. I’ve never needed to use it on a succulent before but the reviews mentioning use with succulents are positive.
When I apply it to leaves I do so sparingly, like a single mist over the plant (two if it doesn’t look like the mist fell on everything) and I apply more of it to the dirt around the plant… generally once a week but sometimes twice if the infestation is bad. You could probably be more aggressive with it, I’m just always afraid of damaging or smothering leaves… sometimes I will spray it on a q tip and spot treat. I don’t do any proactive treatment, I just use it when something like mealies or gnats hitch a ride into my home or a plant’s health otherwise changes in a suspiciously pest-y direction. For mealies you are also going to want to proactively monitor the plant and kill any crawlers you see (shining your phone flashlight through leaves can help you spot them bc shadows), and you are going to want to inspect the crevices at the base of the leaves because that is where they are going to nestle in.
When I apply it to leaves I do so sparingly, like a single mist over the plant (two if it doesn’t look like the mist fell on everything) and I apply more of it to the dirt around the plant… generally once a week but sometimes twice if the infestation is bad. You could probably be more aggressive with it, I’m just always afraid of damaging or smothering leaves… sometimes I will spray it on a q tip and spot treat. I don’t do any proactive treatment, I just use it when something like mealies or gnats hitch a ride into my home or a plant’s health otherwise changes in a suspiciously pest-y direction. For mealies you are also going to want to proactively monitor the plant and kill any crawlers you see (shining your phone flashlight through leaves can help you spot them bc shadows), and you are going to want to inspect the crevices at the base of the leaves because that is where they are going to nestle in.
@DreamMachine @smushface thank you both so much! 🤞🤞 everyone survives!