In article ,
Kay wrote:
On 19/08/2011 10:57, in article , "AL_n"
wrote:

I thank you all for the input. Can anyone explain how the plant is actually
killed? I was hoping that once I had killed the pests, that new leaves
would start to grow, but the plant shows absolyutely no sign of life.

The pests feed on the sap of the plant. If the infestation is really heavy,
the part of the plant that they are on will dry out (just as if it had had
no water) and die. Once the growing tip of a branch has dried out, then the
branch itself may well die, and so on until the whole plant has died.

Actually, I think that they suck the sap out of the cells, so those
cells will die. That is why the leaves go white and don't recover
even if you kill the RSM.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.