Wow, Sue. I always think of your GH as being pristine and bug free, unlike
my outdoor growing where I get all kinds of critters. I used Orthene liquid
one time and got rid of every last nasty, from mealies to white fly to
thrips, in one swell foop (yeah, I meant to write that).

Diana

Thanks Sue for coming forward about the alcohol. I did as someone suggested
and added liquid dish soap to it, and found that to be effective. Apparently
the soap helps the alcohol get thru the waxy coating. I thought I was going
crazy at first, as everyone else had luck with alcohol but me. I would very
carefully pick the mealy off the plant, and set it in a clear plasltic cup, and
spray with alcohol. An hour later, it was still alive. Now that I have added
the liquid dish soap, they die. I would suspect that this will be needed for
a soil drench too, as they do congregate on the roots and in the media as well.
Glad we have such a good resource available to us as RGO. Ive met a lot of
great people on here. Thanks for all the input gang.

Borrowing a comment from http://www.firstrays.com/mealybugs.htm:

Life cycle: Mealy bugs are on the move most of their lives, and since they
live for six weeks to two months, just one can cover a lot of plant
surfaces. Females mature, lay their eggs, then die. The eggs hatch in five
to ten days, or wait longer until conditions are more to their liking. All
this means that if just one mealy bug, or one egg sack, survives your
treatment, the insects will continue to feed and breed.

It sounds like you're just not getting them all, and I have a couple of
suggestions on that:

1) Try treating the GH every 3 days for about 3 or 4 times with a standard
insecticide.
2) Invest in some Enstar II -- actually, if you're been at this as long as
you say, go straight to this.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info!

.. . . . . . . . . . .
"Susan Erickson" wrote in message
...
On 10 Jan 2004 15:07:50 GMT, nospamX
(TRAINMAN9) wrote:

Hi. Im having a small problem with Mealys, and not having much luck
with

Mealy bugs are usually a problem when the humidity is too low or the
plants are
not watered on a frequent enough basis, same for scale.

OK I keep seeing the low humidity. My humidity is between 70 -
80 %. We water the vandaceous stuff often and the mounts the
rest more than once a week. And I have been fighting mealybugs
for over a year.

We have used 2 different pressure bombs, ortheneWP (maybe not the
right name, but the powder), alcohol on every last one I can get
to, buds or not. I want them gone! I will sacrifice buds for
bugs-B- GONE! The keep reappearing.

What is the pure never fail solution -- other than ditching all
the plants?
SuE
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