Going IPM

OK, I'm committed. I just ordered bugs through the mail.

I spent a good portion of last Saturday trying to rid my Gardenias of mealybugs. They are especially attracted to this particular dwarf variety, as well as Jasminum nitidus. I've struggled to control with soaps, Neem oil, pyrethrin sprays for the last couple of years, with at best temporary success.

So I ordered mealybug destroyers and lacewings. I considered the beneficial pest "package" that some companies offer, but none included mealy destroyers. Considered ladybugs and others, but held off on them for right now. Will concurrently try some companion plantings, too.

I'm blessed with dozens of praying mantis egg cases in my yard, I'll stick a couple of them in for good measure.

Anyone else putting aside the sprays and going with beneficial insects? I'd like to hear about your successes or failures. SB

I have been thinking about it for awhile, have even set aside articles to read after this crop from my greenhouse mags. Equilibrium and I have been talking about it. She knows alot about it. I would like to hear updates from you, if you don't mind on how its going.
The one concern I have is-how many of these bugs do you have to release in a 100x30 ft grhouse? I am thinking that we will be dodging them as we work??
If you release one type for one pest and then get another pest that you know you can easliy get rid of with a spray (that the bug you release doesn't eat) like a small infestation that you don't want to introduce another hunter for-will all the pesticides kill all these good bugs?

Hi Tigerlily,

I've never seen it put this way, but it seems to me that there are specialists (mealybug destroyers) and there are generalists (lacewings). Lacewings are said to eat anything they can fit in their mouth. I would think that with a good supply of generalists you shouldn't develop a major problem. I envision spot treatment of those small infestations outside of the greenhouse if possible, because, yes, pesticides will also kill the beneficials.

Most of the sites that sell beneficials will give you a rate of so many bugs per plant or per square foot. I don't know how much we'll notice this in the GH. I underbought a little on the lacewings, I'm afraid.

I've also got some work to do on the aspects of IPM beyond the bugs...screens, traps, surveillance. You are not supposed to have any vegetation near the entries to the greenhouse. I just planted last year some Abelia mosanensis around my doorway and intake shutters, so I'll have to figure out what to do with them.

I have lots of lingering questions: How often will I need to reapply? Can you get beneficials shipped in the winter, or will the bugs be killed in shipping due to cold temps? Can you order ahead and store in the fridge? Can I put my mantis egg cases in the fridge and delay the hatch? Lots to think about! SB

There's an even easier way to get rid of mealy bugs than buying beneficials: change your watering habits. Sounds too simple doesn't it?
Every plant you have, in fact every plant on this planet is fully capable of resisting mealy bug attacks *on it's own* if it's healthy & is watered correctly. Usually people with the worst MBug attacks are the soil-only waterers, they don't get the leaves very wet. The Mbugs find a nice dry hidden leaf crotch & go to town.
To cure them, first blast the colonies off with a very sharp spray the first time. Look close & you'll see their little white bodies loose their outer coating & they become brown when denuded. They really cling on so use a very sharp spray as strong as the plant will tolerate. The most crucial part is to get full coverage over every bit of the plant, under the leaves, in the crotches of the branches, where 2 leaves touch each other, under the pot rim, under the pot, etc. Maybe repeat in a couple days to get 'em again before they have a chance to fully recover.
Then every single time you water, make sure to do it vigorously with a good sharp spray & think about getting into all those hidden spots they like to hide. Watering every time like this, they will be cut back by 80% or so on the first day, & all sign of them will be gone in less than 2 months.
Mealybugs are not really an exotic bug that you "catch". They're nearly everywhere, & they'll pop up quickly from poor culture & watering.

Thats an interesting approach, Grrrnthumb. I don't know about Stressbaby, but I get them on my sun coleus and I probably have 200 flats of them-18 plants to a flat. I can't see me spraying each and every plant-all sides this way not to mention that sun coleus won't take the kind of blasting that you are talking about. Now, I do have them on a few on my house plants-a stephanotis, that I could easily spray that way on. I just discovered rubbing alcohol and water (50:50 ratio) in a spray bottle that I just wiped out the mealies on my house plants. It took 10 min of heavy spraying.
I also used the rubbing alcohol out in the greenhouse on the coleus that had it, as we worked with each one, and we saw mealies, we sprayed-like a foliar drench-except this was a nook and cranny drench! We also used Flagship-one time.
Stressbaby, I talked to Equilibrium and she said there really were no effective biological predators for mealybugs. I read my articles last night and they pretty much said the same thing, There was one article on pink hibiscus mealybug (PHB) which I doubt you have as it resides in tropical and subtropical areas of the world-unless you imported it on a plant. They said the biological control was a wasp-like insect-Anagyrus kamali. This article was written in 2002.
Equilibrium said that if you had mealybugs, even tho she doesn't like chem sprays, she would spray Orthene (acephate). The above article said the same (although they said to mix with Talstar) I have used Orthene with pansy worms and cutworms-very effective and one of the least expensive pesticides.
What predator did they sell you for mealybugs? All the articles ssaid also that the time to introduce biologicals was not when you already had a good infestation going. They also said that there were sprays that you could use in addition to the biologicals that would not kill the good bugs.
None of the articles said anything prohibitive about shipping in the winter-just that you had to overnight the shipment and give 1-2 weeks from the order to shipping.
Thats an interesting question about the praying mantis eggs. I always leave mine in the greenhouse and they hatch sometime in the spring? When do you want them to hatch? In the fall for winter? What pests are you having trouble with besides mealybugs?
I am glad you started me on this-this is something I should be thinking about.

Do you like the company you are dealing with? Do you find them helpful and supportive? All the articles stressed that as very important. They also said that if the company didn't send them overnight-lose that company.

Tigerlily with very soft leafed plant it's not as easy to get such a high percentage of bugs the first day, but if you just water correctly they will definately still be gone in 1-2 months. Part of that may be not growing them so densely in the future. Super-high density may make it so it's commercially cheaper to use poison, but it's still a poor culture practice when you can't give the plants just the basic type of watering they need. You're being punished by mother nature for not meeting their needs, it's not a foregone conclusion that every plant should be able to grow in high densities.

The basic fine mist setting on any regular garden hose nozzel works ok on soft leafed plants if you've got average house water pressure, just stick it down into the body of the plant so it gets underneath the leaves. That fine mist setting helps a little becuase even when you're pointing the hose down, it still sprays some water back up at an angle to make it a litte easier to get under the leaves faster. Even if you don't blast them all off, just wetting every part of the plant under there will drive them away in short order.

Hey tigger123! I'd be a proponent of Valent's Orthene used as a soil drench this time and I definitely will go the non-chemical route given a good fair shot at doing so. I just don't see it happening in a greenhouse setting with plants being grown for wholesale or retail sale. Those plants get sold and end up in homes across the nation.

Sorry for the length of this post but here goes based on my personal experience with mealies and based on the personal experiences of another member here.

treelover3 made this statement-

He also followed up with this statement-

Now here's a little bit more information on mealies from treelover3-


Here's his response-


Sooooooooooo, here's what I did-


I did lose the Tacca but am proud to report that I am mealie free and darn proud of it! Since then I received other plants that were infested with mealies. I quarantined them and was able to knock out the infestation right out the gate before introducing them to other plants. Based on the collective experiences of friends of mine who have been growing plants since I was in diapers almost 50 years ago, I would say that mealies are one bug that needs to be all out nuked or they will be like herpes... the gift that goes on giving.

Boy, you all are depressing.

Orthene is out. These are food plants, or they share space or soil with food plants...oranges, lemons, bananas, mangos, guavas, and so forth.

I've had some phytotoxicity from either Neem or soap spray (don't know which) on the lychee trees emerging foliage, and although it is not infested, I'm very reluctant to spray this tree.

Egg sacs on pots and under pots, and so forth is a problem. I'll closely check the benches.

I've used the blast-spray method many times, but I've never considered it a watering technique. It takes a long time and uses far more water than one would generally use when watering. I will have to replumb a little bit to get a pressurized water stream suitable for watering...some of these plants really like treated water instead of my hard well water.

I'll try Neem and/or alcohol on the tougher plants til I get my bugs. I'll try the water/spray technique on the others, before and after. SB

Gosh, I don't know why some of my quotes failed in that post. Sorry about that.

I say go for the biological and organic controls. Is it within the parameters of the law to wait until the plants are done fruiting for the season and then go in for the kill with Valent's Orthene or the other products mentioned? All you can do is your best.

I hate Mealie Bugs.

What about a layer of Diatomaceaous Earth around the base of all plants? What about mixing it straight into a potting medium in addition to everything else you are going to try? I have never done this before. I have to admit after having had another round with Mealies when they attacked hundreds of my Sarracenia, I have learned that I really hate Mealies. You poor thing.

Don't worry about me, I'll be all right.

I did a blast/spray last weekend on most plants. I reinspected again this morning and 99% of the mealies were on just one potted gardenia.

I blasted/sprayed/water everything else, took the gardenia outside and blasted/sprayed/watered it and then gave it a treatment with acephate and took it back inside. I sprayed acephate over the bench it sat on.

Pretty soon this plant will come out of the GH for the summer. Gardenias are, I'm told, pest magnets, so we'll see... I'll keep you posted. SB

SB If you're worried about water quantity, you can use the fine mist setting, it uses a very tiny amount of water at a time. Remember that the blasting is just to get the process started faster, it's not nearly as essential as just getting full coverage water to every single difficult-to-reach portion of the plant, on a regular basis.

Equilibrium I have to respectfully say that whoever told you mealie bugs were the hardest just doesn't know what they're talking about. I understand their point about the auxilary egg cases away from the plant and I agree, but this is only a problem when you chose to grow them incorrectly & use poison to make up for it (as in many, but not all, commercial operations). The poison often doesn't get every one, or more just get introduced from the outside environment, and since the plant is being grown incorrectly it is still ripe for that one pregnant bug once the poison wears off. So you can't use a little poison, you're all in if you choose that path.
Spraying and proper plant culture on the other hand, make the plant much less desireable to the bugs, they can't keep getting wet on a regular basis & survive. Plus the strengthened plant has it's own improved internal defenses that really do work. Those remote bases are not far from the plant, & rely fully on the mealies being able to get to the plant. You cut off their access to juicy, sappy, overcrowded, & heavily stressed plants, and the remote bases will die too.
I'm sad for you about killing that poor tacca. You took a rare & beautiful plant & put imidacloprid, hydrogen peroxide, alchohol, auxins, thiamin, & numerous other chemicals on it until it croaked... & all it needed was a little water on the leaves.
Just to be clear, I couldn't tell if maybe you were using the terms mealies & scale interchangeably. Scale are much more difficult, and of course water has very little effect on them
Nepenthes are pretty safe from mealy bugs, although still technically possible. The high water & humidity requirements of a nepenthes are exactly what mealy bugs despise. It takes extremely poor culture, gross negligence really, to lose a nep to an easy bug like mealies. :~)

Tom

Tom, you are encouraging. If a simple change in watering technique could help, that would be great.

I would be interested to read an data or links which contend that biologicals are ineffective against mealybugs.

This link from a Purdue University lecture suggests that in fact they are difficult to control with insecticides (at least those applied with spray) but that the mealybug destroyers are an effective biologic control:
http://www.entm.purdue.edu/Entomology/research/cs/notes295N1/Lecture_Lab_PDFs/Lecture_29_GHS_2.pdf

And this reference from McGill University states: "Cryptolaemus is extremely effective against large populations of mealybugs."
http://www.biology.mcgill.ca/Phytotron/ipm_protocols.htm#Mealybugs

I have yet to read a reference that suggests that they cannot be controlled with biologicals. SB

Stressbaby-all the articles that I read came out of Growertalks and Greenhouse Grower. I think they have websites that you can go to. Essentially any grower will tell you that IPM is a program that includes chemicals. All of these articles that I read say it, and the last website that you linked to said it. Every situation is different. Growers run up against situations that hobbyists don't. Frankly, if you mostly have problems with one Gardenia, take a spray bottle with alcohol and water and foliar drench it. Keep the bottle in the greenhouse and anytime you see one-spray it. That is what I have done, and mine are mostly gone. No one likes to spray chemicals-its costly, and time consuming, and no you don't get them all, but you can knock back the population faster than any other way.
Tom-your method of water may work for you with the types of plants that you grow, but I am assuming that you do not do this for a living, and frankly I think its a little harsh for you to say that my plants are unhealthy. You don't know the first thing about how I grow, and I might add that your advice of "watering" to get rid of mealybugs would give the majority of my plants a fungus, and if you want to see the chemicals come out-its going to be with a fungus-I assure you. Most annuals don't want to be "misted" they want their foliage dry. Not to mention that I have to water downwards-the plants are too large to water from the top of the soil. So all the coleus are getting a bath foliage downward-when they need it. Your theory sounds good except that if the plant's foliage is kept wet-or watered/misted once a day, the mealybugs are going to go live underneath the leaf-where the misting isn't going to hit them. I have seen them there plenty of times.
The last thing I will say to you Tom, is that the majority of "hobbists" wouldn't have as many plants to "baby" if it weren't for us commercial growers.
Sorry if I sound a bit "harsh" myself, but I take pride in my plants' health, and I am very tired right now-I have been going 7 days a week since January and it will only get busier until the end of May.

Yes, common names can be a problem as can lumping almost 300 species from just one genus into a catch all category of Mealie bugs. Mealie bugs up my way (and in many circles) is a broad term used for both soft and armored scale insects. I suspect that the vast majority of people out there who are infested with mealie bugs do not know which one they have. In the absence of good quality photographs (or rather a solid ID), I believe it is best to attempt to use methods that will eradicate both soft and armored mealie bugs particularly when dealing with expensive ornamentals or in my case... plants that are from extirpated sites or just plain beloved. Also too, most mealie bug "destroyer" packages are parasitic wasps used to control some waxy mealies/ hard or armored scale and I suspect with that gardenia being infested that stressbaby has an armored form of mealie bug/scale but perhaps he/she could provide a photo of the critter on his/her gardenia.

http://ipm.ncsu.edu/InteriorScapes/insect.html

I grow around 50 Nepenthes, most are highlands or intermediates. They do not have high water requirements and to be quite blunt you'll kill them if you let them sit in a moisture retentive medium or a tray of water. Nepenthes (lowland, highland, and intermediate) are anything but safe from mealie bugs. The listserve is littered with nurseries combating the beast. What appears to be happening is that they either aren't getting them the first time around or are being reinfested from an outside source. Many of these folk are resorting to Enstar II. I also now grow about 20 different orchids and their cultural requirements are across the board. Let us not assume about my Tacca. I was "gifted" a waxy mealie bug and a hard scale the other time.

[quote]It takes extremely poor culture, gross negligence really, to lose a nep to an easy bug like mealies. :~)[quote] Oh, ouch! I'll ignore that comment being as how I've only been growing Nepenthes for a few years and have made my fair share of mistakes.

That being said, I believe your methods will work just fine for positively identified soft mealie bugs.

Gotta run to stand in line to get kids signed up for swimming and then off to a nursery to buy plants for my yard.

Oops, just looking at my link to the website from the e-mail with the poem. It's wrong. This is the correct website to the poem as well as a host of other information- http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/coccoidea/scale2001.htm

Thank you for the very good information on this thread. I love a good educational read. As a person that has just moved from hobbyist to retail grower, I am thrilled that there are people that grow wholesale so I can buy reasonably priced plants! Now if I could get everything from one grower! LOL

Interesting and sobering poem them Lauren!

I don't have a pic. I have citrus mealybug, Planoccocus citri. I say this based on the fact that 1) I don't have the long-tailed mealybug (my mealies don't have tails and I see egg cases - long tailed mealybug is viviparous); 2) P. citri is the most common problem mealybug; 3) the photos match; and 4) and I don't have a root-feeding mealybug.

According to my reading, the "scale" pests are divided into three types: Armored scale, soft scale, and mealybugs. Some authors just use two categories, and include the mealybugs in the soft scale category. There is no such thing as armored mealies, as far as I know.

The mealybug destroyer is Cryptolaemus montrouzieri. It is a ladybug beetle. It's not a package of different bugs. SB

Yes SB, I percieve the scale catagories similar to you. All scale bugs are not mealies, and there is no such thing as armored mealies. All mealy bugs are soft.

Tigerlilly, please don't apologize, lol. I have a thick skin & I should be the one to apologize for harshness. :~) I have a hard time though getting across the major point: It is not my opinion about the health of anyone's plants, it is mother nature telling us loud & clear & specific; if you have mealy bug infestations your plants are not healthy & not being grown correctly.
They may look fabulous & vibrant, sell at a high profit with high density growing, mechanical overhead watering, plenty of poison, & happy customers... That may be your personal definition of correct, but it's not a healthy plant. A healthy plant CAN resist mealies without poison.
You misunderstood me about misting, I would never advocate daily overhead misting for annuals. I was talking about using the mist setting on a nozzel, for a home grower like SB, on a soft hose end stuck into the body of the plant to get *under* the leaves. Hand watering. The equivelant for a commercial grower is a shower head nozzel with hand watering done from both sides of the isle at the same plant with the lowest possible angle. This is not done any more frequently than you usually water. Less perfect than carefully getting every square inch, but also much less bugs than dry leaf watering.

I don't mean to sound unreasonable, I know that the profit margins are so low, especially on many annuals, that growing with little or no poison can be financially unfeasable. Everyone else does it, so if you want to make any money you feel like you have to use the same high density & chemicals, and to a certain extent I know that's mostly true for some plants, but...

Dry leaf watering vs. fungus from leaf watering: Here is where the skill of the greenhouse manager really comes into play. I have seen a HUGE disparity on skill levels of greenhouse management. Fungus just from leaf watering is not a foregone conclusion. All plants get overhead rain in their natural environment. A skilled manager knows about the differences in watering at different times of the day, different days, different temperatures; air circulation, ventilation, greenhouse cleanliness & type of floor, free-air-flowing mesh benchs. He'll know the prediction for minimum overnight temperature on watering day & the dew point so the ventilation fans can be shut off at just the right time to avoid condensation, & he understands that he has full control to fine-tune watering frequency with the type of soils he uses.
I propose:
1) Humidity management is a very essential part of any commercial grower's IPM, as it allows leaf watering & cleaning, wich reduces pests & poisons.
2) In my experience growers with recurring mealy bug problems are those that don't understand humidity control & cleanliness as well, so that they feel the need to dry-leaf water, even though most of these plants would quickly die in their natural environment from infestations if grown that way.


Equilibrium that super free flowing, porous, high oxygen medium that nepenthes love is similar to orchids in that it drys out faster & needs more frequent waterings. Frequent vigorous waterings is why neps & orchids don't often get mealybugs, unless of course you were to make a point of going around the leaves & only watering the soil.
I loved your poem link!

- Tom :~)



This message was edited Apr 8, 2006 8:16 PM

Grrrrnthumb, you have jumped to so many wrong assumptions here, I wouldn't know where to start. First of all, I don't have a mealybug infestation-Stressbaby was the one with the problem. I said that I had seen some on my coleus (not an infestation) and had sprayed Flagship-Once-just once. Used rubbing alcohol on very small amts after that. They are gone.
I don't overhead water-imo its the worst way to water. Watering is the hardest job there is in the greenhouse. We "spotcheck" everyday-in the morning, that means that individual plants that are dry get watered. If the soil is wet-the plant doesn't get watered. Once a week-everything gets fertilized, and depending on the plant, the plant size, the month and where the plant is in the greenhouse, it may only get watered one time in between.
I keep my greenhouses very clean-no plant debris is left on the ground-if plants are cut back-they go in a pot that is emptied outside. Everything is sterlized before the crop starts-including the greenhouses.
Maybe its time to let us know your background in greenhouse management? How many crops/what kind of crops have you raised successfully for a living? What size greenhouses have you managed and for how long? I would be very interested to know your background in this field. Perhaps there is info I could learn from you, but I would like to know the answers to these questions. Obviously you have commercial greenhouse experience?

Ouch again! Lots of "Ouchies" in grrrnthumb's last post.

"A skilled manager knows about the differences in watering at different times of the day, different days, different temperatures; air circulation, ventilation, greenhouse cleanliness & type of floor, free-air-flowing mesh benchs. He'll know the prediction for minimum overnight temperature on watering day & the dew point so the ventilation fans can be shut off at just the right time to avoid condensation, & he understands that he has full control to fine-tune watering frequency with the type of soils he uses. "

Tom, I agree that understand that these are important issues. But I'd wager that the vast majority of the hobbyists out there do not have a handle on these issues. If they do, then they don't have the technology or the time to make the adjustments to the growing environment that might be indicated. Like Tigerlily, I would be interested to know your background.

To change the topic back to mealybugs...
I know of hobbyists who claim to easily control their mealies with the blast of spray technique. I've always understood the success of their method to lie in dislodgement of the critter from the plant. The "mist" setting on my sprayer will not generate enough pressure to dislodge the mealies. Am I understanding your point to be that the mealies don't actually have to get dislodged, but rather that this component of IPM involves just getting them repeatedly wet and increase the humidity of the environment? SB

This message was edited Apr 9, 2006 7:08 AM

This message was edited Apr 9, 2006 7:09 AM

he is saying that the "sharp blast of water" will dislocate them, and the misting will create a "humid, moist or wet" environment that will discourage them. That they would prefer a dryer environment.
I took my stephanotis outside to blast the few mealybugs off-they were very reluctant to come off, but I did bruise a tendril pretty badly ( thats where some of the mealies were). I did end up soaking the plant. Took it back inside and sprayed some rubbing alcohol.
One of the problems with what he is saying about the misting is that by the time you mist all parts of the plant you are going to have runoff-into the soil and that keeps the top of the soil moist-which then encourages algae and fungus gnats-two other problems. That leads into the fungus possiblities I was talking about. Plants don't get fungus from wet leaves (and if you are misting and you have your fans on-either your large one or the small ones, the foliage drys out very fast-but the soil doesn't-so whats the point?), they get it from constantly wet soil and then you are then talking about poor root growth because roots need oxygen and water displaces oxygen. Everything is tied together in an environment-one thing affects another. Water can be your worst enemy in this environment.
If I am wrong here in answering Stressbaby's question-please correct me Grrrrnthumb.

Hi Tigerlily, sorry for what appears to be wrong assumptions. The 2 you mentioned: 1) I didn't mean to say you did have an infestation. I said "if" to explain a point, and meant "you" in a general sense. I actually was guessing maybe you were in the other category I described with vibrant plants in high density like many traditional commercial growers, but no I don't know.
and 2) I didn't claim that you specifically overhead watered or had a dirty greenhouse, or etc., only that together those are some of the factors that contribute to the problems we were discussing.

On answering SB's questions for me, you're close, but the emphasis is not on humidity (of course proper humidity is good for every plant), but it's on wetting. There is no recommendation for a daily anything, no constantly wet plant or soil. When you do water, the soil is saturated, so I'm just saying at that time to also get every part of the plant wet that you can. Hopefully everything incl under the leaves, but at least all the stalk & leaf axils. No extra watering intervals so it does not encourage fungus.
For initial dislodging, you can also use the jet setting on your nozzel if the spigot is turned down a little, depending on the plant.

My resume? I'm sure there's nothing there that would impress you. Yes I have a little experience way back, but honestly I wasn't very good then at all. I had many of the problems that I advocate against now. It wasn't until later that I had the good fortune of becoming friends with 2 different very good greenhouse managers. One is an orchid & misc. tropicals wholesaler and one is a manager of a larger operation that specializes in mainly wholesale annuals. Their information was invaluable & together they opened my eyes to a whole world of possibilities that I'd never even considered. Both are obsessive about the little nuances of greenhouse management that, in aggregate, add up to less poison, a safer work environment, & more profit. These days I'm just a hobby grower. Brugmansia, Iochromas, orchids, aroids, & a smattering of every thing else that I find unique or interesting; and outdoor perennial gardening of course too. Very small set-up right now since we built the new house, not nearly enough growing room, hopefully next year I'll get around to building the big greenhouse I need.

SB, on dislodging vs interval wetting, it's best if you can do both. But if there were some reason you couldn't dislodge, then just using the techniques we discussed will eventually work on it's own, only a little slower. You'll see your best improvement from at least getting your water to penetrate into the sticky white nests & dislodging all you can find.
SB I'm sorry about the technical methods that are obviously not going to be used by the average hobby grower. We sort of have 2 threads here going at once, commercial & hobbiest. For you, all you have to do is wet every part of the plant when you water, don't grow them too close together, keep them generally healthy, & they'll be fine. You might want to try dabbling in some of the other techniques for fun, they can only help.

You can count me in as one of those. :~)

- Tom

Well, today I release 1000 lacewing eggs in the GH. They were just starting to hatch. A couple of days ago I release 25 mealy destroyers, all alive, shipped overnight. I may have done too good a job with my blast-spray, alcohol, and limited acephate applications, as my mealy population is greatly reduced...I wonder if the mealy destroyers will all just starve to death. Other than acephate on one plant, one time, outside of the GH, no sprays now for over 2 weeks. I'm using Tom's spray/water technique, figuring it can't hurt. SB

Thats great SB. What bugs are the lacewings going to feed on? Would like to know how that works. Does Tom's water spray method ever knock the mealies off? I just don't see them coming off that way-they seem to have a real ability to hang in the nook of the branch pretty well.

Hi TL,

Lacewings are supposed to eat aphids, spider mites, thrips, whiteflies, some mealybugs, and other stuff. I don't know what mine are eating! Lacewing eggs are nothing more than grey-green dust. I won't know what happened for some time, I suppose. I'm worried that it got pretty hot today, maybe my eggs and bugs got cooked before they got going. I found one dead mealy destroyer today and a couple of live mealybugs :-(

I think you can either water or blast-spray, but so far I haven't exactly figured out how to do both well at the same time. Watering with a hard spray under leaves and such doesn't dislodge many bugs, at least the may I'm doing it now. I'm still fooling around with the technique. SB

So SB, just to reiterate the way I do it, I blast 'em at first with a jet setting on the nozzel, as strong as the plant will tolerate, then a strong mist up under the leaves is a maintenance thing long term to keep them from regaining a foot hold.
You're right that mist alone won't dislodge many bugs initially & takes longer to work without a separate blasting using the jet setting.

I've been using Grrnthumb's watering technique.

The only critters I see are whiteflies on the nasturtiums...moved them out of the GH...no mealy destroyers or lacewings visible, but no mealies either.

SB

Experiment over.

Mealies recurred, and no sign of lacewings or mealy destroyers. They arrived, and were released, on the hottest day of the year so far. I had struggled to gain some measure of control in the week prior to their arrival. So I think they were either ejected (through the exhaust fan), starved or cooked.

I'll try again, perhaps, in the fall. I wonder if the critters are better off released on a cool, overcast day, like the kind of day on which you would take cuttings.

Back to neem oil, soap spray, alcohol, other methods. Tom/grrrnthumb's method works OK, but using my well water leaves a calcium residue all over the plants and greenhouse glass. I don't have enough treated water to use this way.

Dwarf pomegranate bloom buds.
SB

Boy, I am sorry to hear that. Mealies are tough to get rid of-no doubt. I switched over to hort oil, but am actually heading for the Talstar/Orthene mix today-time for me to stop fooling around and hit them with the hard stuff. We are seeing small amts of them on the sweet potato and coleus, and I can't send them out with these buddies on them.
I still would like to hear how it goes in the fall. You think because your greenhouse is so small (short) that they just went for the exit? Your exhust fan can't be that strong a pull-is it? I am picturing gale winds lol. I can't believe that the heat killed them-how hot was it? This was a few weeks ago, and I would think in your area it was not that hot yet-not hot enough to kill a bug, and not damage your plants.
You are really going for the exotic fruits here Stressbaby!! Nice pomegrante-never got into eating them,but I love the blooms and fruits-the way they look-not taste!

TL, what's up? Keeping up with the business? The mealy destroyers came chilled, with an icepack. They were slow and sluggish at first, but once they warmed up, they started flying around. I went off to work. The fan ran all day, I'm sure, because it was soomething like 80F outside that day. I saw at least one bug fly up to the fan, so I'm sure there were others.

I don't think the heat killed any of the mealy destroyers, but I wonder about the lacewings. The eggs were viable, alive, and hatching out when I got them. The just-hatched larvae are just dust, they are so small. Once you spread them out, poof, they're gone. I never saw another one.

I wonder if I'll ever be rid of the stupid mealies.

I'm just leaving a few of these blooms on until they open, then I'm cutting these plants back. They are kind of leggy, and I want a bushier plant. Slow to root in, these pomegranates.

SB

SB if water deposits are the only thing holding you back from full watering, then you can put together a simple 2 stage water filter pretty cheaply from one of the home centers that you can hook up to your hose. Most people around here with wells have the larger ones for whole house filtration. Makes laundry & bathing better, water tastes better, etc. :)