This is interesting, just yesterday I found a small Dendrobium & saw a
couple of
mealies in the crevice of the leaves.
I literally poured neat alcohol on them & they turned black immediately.
This morning I went to check & there is more white stuff over the black
residue?
It's time for the big guns.
--
Cheers Wendy
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"Rob Halgren" wrote in message
...
IiSpankyii wrote:
Hi. Im having a small problem with Mealys, and not having much luck with
alcohol, or pyrethrins. I sprayed a mealy with Ortho Tomato and Vegy
spray,
and it contains .02% pyrethrins. Checked back and hour later, and the
little
sucker had wandered to a different part of the leaf. Still alive. So I
tried
the alcohol on the end of a Qtip, and checked back an hour later, it was
still
alive. Im doing this in my basement, so I dont want to use anything too
toxic.
Does anyone have an idea what will kill these critters? I want
something I
can spray, and not hurt me or the plants. I appreciate any ideas you all
might
have. Thanks in advance
You put 70% isopropyl alcohol directly on a mealybug and it lived?
Superbug!! I don't think that is possible. If you tried some other
kind of alcohol (ethanol), then maybe. Make sure you are using rubbing
alcohol straight out of the bottle. You can spray that on the plant,
which you should do after you do the Q-tip routine. I promise there are
more that you can't see. They love to hide in the base of leaves, and
some hide in the potting mix too. Best to spray every four or 5 days
for a few weeks, just to make sure you get them all. Even if you don't
see any, spray anyway.
So, why so gentle, anyway? You can squish mealybugs... I wouldn't
bother putting anything on a q-tip to kill one, I'd just squish it. You
can probably even squish it with a q-tip, or a pencil eraser, or
something, if you don't want to get bug guts on your fingers.
Rob
--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a. See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase
more orchids, obtain more credit