Mealy Bugs - Help !

[석짜]

군자란에서 흔히 볼 수 있는 깍지벌레에 대한 메일입니다.

메일 그대로 올려봅니다.

====================

Recently--as in  a few months ago ----I was given a write up on the use of coffee grounds made into a ''tea'' to dispose of the little white fluffy pests

Ken Russell shared it with me .....he had trialled it himself and found it works very well.

Others in the Melbourne Clivia Group have also used it with success

 

Not being a coffee drinker myself I go to the local coffee shop and get a plastic container of grounds

These I mix with water and allow them to steep for a couple of days

The resulting brew is strained and bottled and then diluted to a weak tea colour and then sprayed over foliage --or poured though the potting medium

The brew will keep for about a month or so and then repeat with fresh grounds

Alternatively you could sprinkle the coffee grounds on pot surfaces

 

Chemical free and in my case also completely free as the grounds are otherwise chucked in the bin

 

-------------------------------------

 I've also had excellent results using imidacloprid for mealybugs.  I began using it professionally in landscape management about 15 years ago, & think that carefully used it's one of the best insecticides that can be obtained by home gardeners.
It's one of the longer-acting systemic insecticides, typically requiring application once (or at most twice) per 12 months.   For example, Merit brand of imidacloprid was labeled that when used on grasses to control grubworm or cinch bug infestations, cattle should not be allowed to graze on treated areas for a full year post-treatment, due to the long residual action within the tissues.

With an active mealy infestation, use of a contact insecticide such as pyrethrin or insecticidal soap to knock down existing populations works best since imidacloprid has comparatively poor contact action despite it's lengthy systemic effectiveness.  Control will also be MUCH faster using a contact product due to the time it takes for imidacloprid to reach full effectiveness in clivias.

Due to the relatively slow metabolism of clivias, this product is most effective used as a drench that coats the foliage and also saturates the roots so most of the plant contacts the product, reducing the parts that will be reached solely by translocation.   foliar absorption by clivias is poor due to their heavy cuticle, but even so I've had much better results doing this than just spraying or watering with it.

Applied only as a spray or watered in, it takes literally months to be systemically translocated to parts of the plant not directly contacted, and may never reach effective levels in the oldest leaves where metabolic activity is much lower than in new growth.

I've heard that Bacillus subtilis as a spray and drench is effective on mealies, but I have yet to try it. 

on the other hand,  the weak coffee solution treatment sounds wonderful being zero toxicity and effective.  does it help with any other bugs as well?

Wishing everyone enough of everything they need this year...health, prosperity, love...and of course, gorgeous clivia flowers.

with kind regards,

-----------------------------------

 thank you very much for this information. I'd been using 'coco-wet' surfactant/wetting agent, but it doesn't have the newer technology that Dutch Masters utilizes so does not enhance penetration as you report this newly labeled product does. 
I'd heard of 'Penetrator' but it's a bit expensive, so haven't tried it.  I'll get some for foliar feeding seedlings after your recommendation. 
I'd stopped foliar feeding mature clivias after I realized most of the food was beading up on the waxy cuticle and drying as spots with a large part being unabsorbed so not utilized.  Do you foliar feed adult plants, with good results?

Good to know pyrethrin sprays can have that effect on clivias.  I only used pyrethrins on mine once or twice when there were some mealies several years ago and I didn't notice any shock from it.  Have you considered that it might be the carrier in the product you use that shocks the clivias rather than the pyrethrins themselves?

 I agree wholeheartedly the problem with contact sprays is they have to contact the pest to kill it, which on a clivia is difficult to impossible.  A plunge into a bucket or vat of solution works best but is so messy/harzardous/laborious that I've only done that a few times in the past 20 years for plants with mealybugs in the roots.

The ideal solution is the "integrated pest management" approach of changing the environment to be less hospitable to pests while employing several different pest management techniques such as contact insecticides as well as systemics; or using natural controls such as beneficial bacteria & fungi along with predatory insects and/or predatory mites to balance existing insect/pest populations. 

The addition of diatomaceous earth to potting mixes can vastly reduce if not eliminate soil-borne pests.  It's very important to wear protective equipment such as gloves and a good face mask when using Diatomaceous Earth, despite it being 'natural' and 'non-toxic'. 
DE is very fine silica powder from fossilized diatoms.  It's composed of particles so tiny that IF any is accidentally inhaled, then the particles lodge in lung tissue where the body cannot eliminate them.  Over time repeated exposure leads to silicosis, a debilitating & permanent lung disorder.

 DE is especially good if there are ants farming mealybugs for their honeydew secretions.  DE abrades the chitin (insect 'skin') so insects dehydrate or die from infections that are unable to penetrate intact chitin.  DE in soil tends to be 100% effective for ants and whatever other insects they farm on plants or in their containers. 

[목어]

알콜솜으로 살짝 딱아내고 스프라사이드 묽게 타서 살짝 뿌리니 괞찮턴데 혹시이런귀절이 적혀있나요
해석할려니 머리가~~~~띵

[그래요]

시댁에 드린 노란군자란 아가를 엄니가 깍지에 점령당하도록 냅두셨어요 걍 맨손으로 훝어서 휴지로만 닦아내니..
제가 가져올려다가 울집 화분에 옮을까 걍 냅뒀네요. 깍지가 생기는것은 처음 보았어요 시어머니께서 입주선물로 준 군자란을 13년동안 키울동안 벌레 한번 없었는데..올 여름 긴 장마에 카랑코에 에서 옮아 군자란까지 피해를 입었네요.