Yea I got a great deal on plants over ebay, but they had mealies. To my untrained eye and being new to the hobby, I overlooked them. Over the summer the 30 species I bought grew great. Its when fall came and I moved them inside did I discover that beneath the canopy, all the plants had white fuzz. Just about all died even after serious treatment, I caught them too late.

atm I still have mealies that show up on random plants, I keep treating my plants. They never ever fully die, after a month mealies will show up.

I feel your pain.

I've been fighting mealies for 2 years!

But that was my fault...beginner at the time too, I didn't know what it was until the very same thing happened to me.

I brought them in for the winter & plants began to drop out one by one. I think the mistake I made was that I spot treated with a q-tip dipped alcohol. Obviously I must've missed a few because it went on until Spring. When I put them out again, I was able to kind of get a handle on it.

This time, I defoliated all the jades, leaving one or two leaves on each plant.

Bare rooted, washing away all soil & replacing with grittier mix & treated with alcohol in a spray bottle till they were just dripping with it.

Then put them up in front of West facing patio doors. I treat with alcohol every 3 days and inspect daily WITH my glasses (neglecting to do that no doubt contributed to my past issues).

I've read that some mealies, depending on the species, can be live bearers (blech) while another kind, the female dies & her body stays attached to the plant, protecting the eggs till they hatch (double blech).

I've also read that the life cycle from egg to crawler can be up to 10 days and up to 60 days to complete the life cycle. Continuous treatment until the cycle is broken is what I'm aiming for.

So. I've been treating every 3 days for the last 2 weeks and have not seen a single mealy, live or otherwise. I had started to slack off but then found 3 of my new additions had them.

Ebay -___-
shaking fist.

I knew I should've quarantined them, I regret that I didn't. They got the 'silkwood' treatment though & hopefully, my daily inspections of the uninfected part of my collection remains that way.

Good luck with your own battle (holds fist in the air in solidarity) I sure hope eventually they'll go away for good.

Yea, I just wonder how people with hundreds of c&s in their greenhouses dont have mealies. I went to the botanical garden in my city (Toronto) a while back and loved the huge c&s section. I wondered how they dealt with mealies since there was no air flow. I asked the person working there and he just started on how annoying they were. They also have ants who protect the mealies, so even after they treat mealies, the ants bring them back. There are golden barrel cactus there that are a meter in width and height!!!

Hookilau would you mind telling me just how much soap and alcohol is in that mix you use? It doesn't harm even the furry and pruinose ones? I got around 20 new plants and it would be a pain to inspect, spot treat or spray all of them with alcohol. I didn't care before but my current collection seems to have spider mites. Thanks.

(You had me laughing at all that fist shaking).

Iane

So sorry, my messages keep getting posted twice, something's wrong with my connection.

This post was edited by brown_panda on Sat, Nov 15, 14 at 5:46