Mealy bugs... troubled by them

This is just a small twig, infested with these 'beasts'. The branches are all covered by these on thei undersides, even leaves. Leaves fall off curling, as the sticky substance probably prevents it to breathe. The sticky substance emanates an odd, offensive odour. I also noticed these are larvae of the mealy bugs, that are white and feathery - adults. Their undersides were pink. Am not controlling it. The other Fiddle wood Tree had been attacked last year. This year only the second tree is infested, not that one. It disappeared on its own. I hope the same thing happens to this one too. The sticky substance falls on the plants kept under the tree as well. It becomes blakish. Any organic solutions, please?

Dinu

Half water, half rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle-hopefully you can reach all the branches. Spray to drench the bugs and get in all the nooks and crannies. Has worked great for me.

I forgot to mention that there are too many branches in this tree and it has only half reached the top branches. Your idea gives me the idea: tie some cotton waste to the end of a pole and dip it in alcohol or even kerosene and then dab them. Spraying may not work as the branches are high and most of the sprayed matter will not hit the target. Is 'rubbing alcohol' different?

Dinu, I don't think you have mealy bugs. I think you have cottony cushion scale. The white things are egg masses secreted by the female. Here is a good link http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/bimg116.html
another link http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/I/I-HO-IPUR-CO.010.html http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7410.html
If it is scale, a horticultural oil will give you better control of them.

I forgot to add, some kinds of scale lay masses of cottony egg cases on the underside of the leaves and they look a lot like mealy bugs. They also produce a lot of honeydew(the sticky stuff), they have a weird odor and it draws ants. Ants "farm" the scale for the honeydew, so if you have ants on that tree, you will want to get rid of them too.

Whatever you have, you do need a sprayer of some kind to reach all of the tree. You are right, a hand sprayer won't do it. I use a sprayer that attaches to the end of the hose that is a 1:20 gallon ratio. It has a preety good reach. As for the treatment, I am not sure what access to pesticides that you have there. Just reading the labels for either mealybug or cottony cushion scale. My bet is that what kills one, kills the other one.
The rubbing alcohol that I was refering to is Isopropyl rubbing alcohol-70% strength. If you want you can try it. I would fill the sprayer up with all alcohol and test on a branch to see if is too strong. None of the end of the hose sprayers are 50/50 ratio, so it won't be as strong.

This is the bug.

That second picture looks more like a mealybug, even though the first one did look a bit like a cottony scale of some kind. Both make that sticky "honeydew" that you describe. The black stuff that grows on the "honeydew" is sooty mold. It doesn't harm the plant leaves themselves. It only feeds off the honeydew.

Though not organic, another option that you may have is systemic imidicloprid. One of the Bayer Advanced products (Bayer Advanced Tree and Shrub, I believe) has this as an active ingredient - don't get the cheaper but much more nasty disulfuton version. When I got some (I thought I was going to have to treat my gardenias - thank goodness the whiteflies went away), I noticed that there was a smaller bottle above the Bayer Advanced - also with imidicloprid at the same % active ingredient. Even though it had a different label, it was also put out by the Bayer company. If you can find a smaller bottle like this, it will be cheaper. Though if you have more than one tree to treat, you might need the regular Bayer Advanced bottle size.

Though this not an organic solution, it will only affect insects that suck on your trees. It will take care of both mealybugs and soft scales like cottony cushion scale. Hopefully a systemic material won't affect some of the predator insects that mightbe out there. It also won't require you to reach the tree branches. The tree will take up the material itself.

It mighttake a little time for the imidicloprid to get taken up all the way into the tree and take effect, but the effects are supposed to give lasting control - for about 6-8 months or more.

i think it is scale and the white "bug" you are seeing is the scale in the crawler stage. there can be many stages of scale life on a single plant. they are easier to kill in the crawler stage because they haven't gotten their armour yet. if you have an ortho hose-end sprayer, that does shoot a jet pretty far up into the tree. you will need oil to kill them.

Thanks Nightbloom & trackinsand. Will have to check on the availability of the Bayer product. But if the problem persists till next year, will have to resort to that. But I'm going to wait till next summer when the problem is expected to aggravate. This wait is because the other tree that was affected last summer is free from this infestation this summer. This is the first time it has been attacked to this degree. I realized the nuisance when my neighbour had the branches that were above his yard and where they parked their cars were dirtied by the honeydew. Now again this morning, they requested me that if I had my permission to trim the top leaves. I had to say yes. Because I know how problematic this is for the plants kept below. This tree will have no problem with new growth.

I did use a broom tied to a long pole to brush off whatever I could reach, but it was only temporary effect. It seems to multiply rapidly. They live on the undersides of leaves and branches. So, a heavy rain only will wipe them down. Now this rainy season will not have heavy drops of rain, but thin ones that will not affect these pests at all. I think they will reduce its number in the moist season. I have to try the sprayer and I have plans to buy a pump for this purpose. Water pressure is very low in the supply pipes these days.

Dinu

Better picture.

This is what they did to the leaves of plants beneath the tree. Just two days back, my fed-up neighbour got it chopped of most of the infested branches except the high one that could not be reached. Their garden too was a mess, their car-tops parked just next to our compound wall was also getting sprayed with honeydew. That was it. Look at my lovely hydrangea! How black it is!

This is the remaining branch of the tree that was pruned off by the neighbour. I'm thinking of cutting it off as well. I mean the one in the background.

That last picture looks like the larva of the mealy bug destroyer - a good guy that eats mealy bugs and aphids. Are you sure that is what the rest of them look like? Look closely.

BTW, if these are cottony cushion scale, imidacloprid does not work. But it will kill the ladybugs that feed on them....

In looking at this again, and from the description you give, it looks like it could be the pink hibiscus mealybug. It feeds on over 300 different species of plants. It is native to southern Asia and is now moving through the US. I saw my first case of it this week, on hibiscus. It was loaded, like your pictures. The photo you took of the mealybug destroyer (beneficial) would make sense, too. It would have been eating the mealybugs. It is very hard to control, and getting rid of it completely is thought to be impossible. That mealybug destroyer is one of the most effective in managing the PHM. Both it and the adult stage feed on the pests.
Imidacloprid helps to control this pest, but spraying is also recommended. I think that would be impossible under your conditions. I think the best thing you can do is remove the tree and get rid of all the material. Can you burn it? Otherwise bag it, in plastic, if possible, and take it to a dump site.
This will tell you more about them:
http://www.ncipm.org/phmb/phmb.pdf
If you can't download this, let me know, and I will copy and d-mail it to you.
CJ

This morning I saw them beneath my Brugmansia leaves. What are those black ones?

The black things are aphids. The white things are those wonderful mealybug destroyers - the larval stage of a tiny lady beetle that has a black body with a red "head". They eat aphids and mealybugs. These are NOT mealybugs.

Will try to get a better picture today.

Dinu - The picture was fine. What you have on your tree are mealybugs. But these pictures show mealybug destroyers that are eating the mealybugs. They look a lot alike. That is their camouflage....The last picture shows them eating aphids, another one of their favorite foods...

This is a picture of the mealybug destroyer.

And this is a picture of the adult - a tiny lady beetle, that also eats mealybugs and aphids.

Here is a picture of a an individual mealybug (they are always in groups) - the bad guy that sucks the juice out of plants and causes the black sooty mold on the leaves below....Do you see the difference?
http://hortipm.tamu.edu/pestprofiles/sucking/mealydawn/citrus.jpg

I can't be sure, because your first photo is not real clear, but I think that the white in it may be the mealybug destroyers eating the mealybugs.

Does it mean these creatures are favourable to the garden? Here is another I found this morning. It is the underside. May be it is holding up something.

The mealybug destroyer is favourable because it eats mealybugs.
The mealybugs are not favourable because they suck the sap from plants.

Your first picture shows lots of (bad) mealybugs. I think it also shows the (good) mealybug destroyers eating the mealybugs. They are the white things. I could be wrong about that picture because it is not real clear. But all of the other pictures that you have shown are of the (good) mealybug destroyer. So they are there and they are eating the mealybugs. That is good.

Thanks a lot. It really will be of help in maintaining the good fellas. Didn't know about it before. I was killing them. I once threw one of the good guy into the pond and the fish seemed to relish that!