Thanks for the response. I emailed my father-in-law and he said the following: He cuts his grass every week He does not cut his lawn short; rather medium to high in his words. He said he waters every other day when there is no rain. I'm assuming he needs to cut more frequently, make sure his blade his sharp, and cut at a height between 2" and 3"? Also, he needs to only water once a week? Total watering plus rainfall should equal 1" for the week?

Yes, they are mealy bugs. The first step is definitely to quarantine any affected plants. Make sure you really check all your plants, not just the ones where they are readily visible, because they can be expert hiders. Leaf or surface mealy bugs are different from root mealy bugs, but it is possible to have both. I would try pulling up a plant or two to check; if you don't see anything, you probably only have the surface bugs. Treatment can be a bit of a pain, but you can find lots of information on what solution to use on the forum. I have used a 50/50 water/alcohol mix with a squirt of dish soap, and I'm currently experimenting with Safer's Insecticidal Soap. So far it seems to be working well. Definitely make sure you spray and/or remove what you see, but I always like to spray the whole plant in case there are things I can't see going on. Because soaps and pesticides often work on certain, but not all, parts of the life cycle, you will have to do several treatments. The life cycle is around 3 weeks. I like to spray once every few days (spraying every day seems too hard on the plant, in my experience). Then, be sure to keep your plants quarantined for a few more weeks to be sure all the bugs are gone before you put them back with the rest of your collection. Good luck!

What an interesting thread. I've had these holes appearing in my shirts, which has been costing me money to replace and headaches to deal with. At first, I blamed my desk at work for creating abrasion points. The desk is old (20+ years) and has edges that have degraded. I initially put scotch tape over the rough edges that quickly wore through so thought I had confirmed the source. I then bought 5 foot long plastic corner protectors, so thought I had solved the problem. Not so. The holes persisted in more shirts (both thrifted and new ones). The final straw was when I saw the holes in a nightgown. How is that possible? I am not inclined to do much in my nightgown--other than sleep. I don't see the belly button protein theory as the issue given that I have psoriasis so there would be more than that one spot vulnerable. Then I thought weight gain (blame COVID and aging). I don't wear belts often so can't blame that. Also my jean wearing has been next to nothing since the weight gain and limited access for shopping so no jean snaps in use. The nightgown holes cancel out the seat belt theory for me. That leaves me to consider the washer, detergent, toothpaste splatter, or pill bugs. I have seen pill bugs in the past, but why would they be active only recently and not all these years? Washer is not an option for me as I've seen damage from an old washer and it does not restrict itself to one small area. Same for detergent. So, what's left? Cheaper cotton? But why only in the one spot? It's quite the mystery.

For mounds, I understand your point. But mounds usually take a larger width to allow for that gradual sloping down. I have a very narrow strip to work with. So if you were forced into using sharp vertical walls to contain the raised bed, with the bottom open to the native soil, how wide and tall would you make it for Pittosporum Tobira?