Mealy bug infestation in Greenhouse

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but...
I had to be away for an extended length of time ~ 2 months due to a family illness and death and I came home to find every plant in my greenhouse is covered in mealy bugs. Is there anything I can do, or do I just remove everything and start over? I'm just sick and I don't know what to do. I have angel trumpets, datura, night-blooming jasmine and lots of other tropical plants. Any help anyone can provide would be welcome.

Thanks in advance.

The usual suggestion for mealy bugs is a q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol to wipe them off with, but I'm not sure how long it would take you to do that if they're all over everything. You don't want to spray the rubbing alcohol because too much of it could hurt the plants. I've never used anything else for mealies so I'm not sure what else kills them. Maybe you could try a good strong blast from the hose to see if you can knock some of them off, then get in their with the alcohol & q-tips.

Medic, alcohol and Q-tips will take forever initially. As long as it it not too cold, put the plants outside or on the ground and blast them with the hose. If you have one of those hose sprayers with the different dial-in spray settings, use the "flat" or "vertical" setting, those work well. Get under all of the leaves...it the pots on their sides if you have to. You will remove the vast majority of the bugs and egg cases. Be sure and check the containers and benches carefully, because egg cases will often be found in creases of the pots and benches...blast those off too. Then spray with something...pick your poison...I would use permethrin or Carbaryl or something along those lines.

Repeat the spray in 5-7 days as allowed by the label, then you should have enough control to go to alcohol and Q-tips.

SB

Edited to add Acephate as a spray alternative to the options I mentioned above, esp for nonedibles.

This message was edited Oct 27, 2007 7:35 AM

This message was edited Oct 27, 2007 7:50 AM

Neem Oil - Spray it everywhere

Thanks to everyone who responded to my post. Yesterday, I moved all plants outside and hosed them off as best as I could as well as the containers. I even moved all the benches out and hosed them off and then did the walls of the greenhouse. Moved everything back in last night. This morning revealed more bugs and those I hit with alcohol and q-tips. Went to the store this afternoon and purchased a fogger and systemic. Set the fogger this evening and will apply the systemic tomorrow. That plus super vigilance will be enough to keep it in check. Unfortunately, I'll still be away quite a bit but hopefully home often enough to apply whatever needs to be done often enough to keep them in check. Again, I appreciate everyone's response. I only lost about 10 plants out of about 50, so I guess it could have been worse.