mealybugs on prayer plant :(

On my pink prayer plant that only has about 6 leaves on it, I discovered at least 10 mealybugs in various places. I immediately washed the leaves and then sprayed the heck out of every nook and cranny of the leaves with neam oil. None of my other plants are showing any signs of infestation and I now have this plant quarantined away from all other plants. This morning, I found one fat mealybug on the plant. Is neem oil enough to get rid of these pests? I have a systemic insectide, but would rather try other solutions first. Any advice? I've never dealt with these pests before.

--Emily

The lifecycle is short, I belive only a few days, so repeated spraying is the key. Miss one and you get to start all over (they might even be able to bear live young like aphids but I don't remember right now). Straight alcohol is what I use every 2-3 days. Have never used neem oil but hear it works well.

You have the right technique for getting every nook and cranny but don't forget the pot and saucer as well as misting just the top of the soil. I've also found mealies on the rope of hanging plants too!! Important to get every surface and be dilligent. I also keep infested plants quarantined for at least 2 weeks after I've stopped finding the mealies for a full week.

Contact type treatments will not get rid of root mealies and that will take a systemic. It does take a bit for the systemic to be absorbed thru the plant so I continue with the contact treatment as well.


This message was edited Jan 23, 2005 9:46 AM

Hi Caron,

Thank you so much for your advice. I think I will go ahead and use a systemic treatment as well as the neem oil. Tomorrow will have been 3 days since last neem treatment so good to know on that one. Do mealies tend to burrow into the soil as well? I've never heard of root mealies, but that doesn't mean much since this is the first time I've had to deal with them. I'm tempted to just repot it into fresh new soil and discard the old soil, and disinfect the pot and saucer.

I'm planning to quarantine this little guy for a while. He's in a nice humid spot away from any other plants. The closest plants (my orchids) are about 5 feet away. Unless these guys can sprout wings, not worried.

As far as nasties are concerned, how bad are these guys to get rid of?

Thanks for your advice on this :)

--Emily

Sorry Emily should have been more specific. I'm not saying that you do have root mealies just giving you a heads up that if the neem or alcohol doesn't work and the plant doesn't revover pretty quickly then investigate for root mealies.

The root mealies are different insects then the foliar ones you see on your plants. Getting rid of the foliar ones has always been fairly easy for me with alcohol treatment. However, if the plant contunues to decline with leaves that become become pale, yellow or greyish, puckered and spotted in the absence of foliar bugs, you may *also* have root mealies.
I just completed a systemic treatment on two relatively new hoyas. After getting rid of the foliar mealies the plants actually got worse. I know the systemic worked in about 2 weeks but it took about 4-6 weeks total to get these babies to a point where I could put them back out with the others. It was really bad by the time I discovered the root mealies and wasn't even sure that they would recover.

Repotting in sterilized soil and I've read that a quick dunk of the entire unpotted plant (with soil removed and any damaged roots cut off) in a 5% alcohol treatment will help too. Sterilizing the pot and saucer will go a long way to maintaining good clean culture even if you have foliar mealies.
For me the systemic is much easier as I really hate repeatedly potting and repotting already sick and stressed plants.
Good luck

Hi Caron,

I ended up spraying the leaves with a pyrethins spray, repotting into new soil and then adding some systemic insecticide as the neem oil wasn't putting much of a dent in the population. It's now been 6 days and haven't found another mealy yet. It's still in quarantine and I might just leave it where it is as I just took 4 more cuttings off of my night blooming jasmine. I never knew those guys were so easy to propagate.

Great to hear you haven't seen anymore. The systemic will go along way to keeping them gone.

Ahhhh...night blooming jasmine. Didn't know they were that easy to prop either (but it's also one that I can't seem to keep alive no matter what I do)!!


This message was edited Jan 30, 2005 6:37 AM

Night blooming jasmine just needs moist soil, sun, warmth, and some humidity. I have my plants on a tray of pebbles. They are only hardy to about 28f so I keep mine inside until the danger of frost has passed. Are you trying to grow them inside or outside?

Inside. Might be that I have a hard time providing sun, warmth and humidity. Usually I can get one or two but not all three at one time!!

I get warmth and sun so I provide humidity for it. Given your zone, not sure how warm it stays inside. I keep many of my plants in front of several south-facing windows we have and right by each window is a radiator-style heater that uses hot water. My plants love it.

--Emily

Hey guys, just stumbled onto this post. I've had great success killing mealy bugs on my pothos. I scrubbed some of the leaves with soapy water (and q-tips to get the nooks and crannies). This took a while, but got the bulk of the mealies off. Then every couple days, I hit the buggers I saw with rubbing alcohol and a swab. Then about every 5 days, I just misted with a mainly water - drop of soap, splash of rubbing alcohol mix. That was several months ago, and the infestation was really bad. I am still seeing one or two little white specks, but when I do, I remove them or spray. It seems to work great, and is a lot safer health-wise than using a systemic. Just thought I'd throw in my experience...
Thanks, Mara