I always recommend spraying with an alcohol solution....that Q-tip method is crazy. But, I think you need to keep up with it. Be generous with your alcohol mistings, spraying those areas that even seem to be insect-free. The alcohol does not have a residual effect.

All pesticide labels should have clear directions about how soon you should reapply the product. Is there a phone number on the label to call for information? I'd really hold off on any more applications until you find out for certain. Systemics aren't typically made to be applied as often as you are doing.

Thanks for the reply. (The forum didn't notify me of your post for some reason, so I didn't know right away that you had written.)

I'm doing the alcohol every 1-2 days, and so far (about a week and a half) I am not seeing a detectable decrease in the number of bugs I find each time, which is discouraging. I'll spray more, on your recommendation. And since you say there is no residual effect (I suspected that myself, but I wanted to check), I'll start hosing it down after the alcohol dries - the dead bugs are disturbing to look at, and the water might wash off even more live ones as well. Hopefully the plant won't mind its soil staying wet for awhile - I removed the saucer while it's outside, but that big a pot won't dry out between hosings.

I expected to see little specks of baby bugs for awhile as the eggs hatch, but what is disturbing is that I mostly keep finding big adult ones that weren't there before, even showing up on the very same leaves I alcoholed the day before. Does that mean I'm still bad at finding them, or do new hatchlings grow to full size very quickly? I'm new to this battle.

As far as I can tell, the systemic isn't working. I did notice that very few experts on the web even mention using a systemic for mealies - most everyone only talks of getting rid of them by hand. Perhaps thats because systemics are not very effective...? Anyway, I'll do more, and keep you posted.

It sounds like you are searching for the insects and just spraying where you find them. You need to mist the entire plant, including the inside trunk and places where you really can't see very well. I wouldn't bother rinsing after you've misted; you don't want to over water your lovely plant.

Mealybugs hide in the nooks and crannies of plants, making it difficult to find them sometimes. That's why misting with abandon is necessary. You want to get every part of the plant. Are you using full strength alcohol, or diluting it with water?

I'm using it full strength as it comes from the bottle, which says it is 70% denatured ethyl alcohol. (I can't find this kind of alcohol in Japan, but fortunately the last time I visited a U.S. military base I brought back a bottle.) Today I did the "with abandon" treatment, but it is really hard to get at all the spots with this many branches winding all around each other. These bugs are amazing - I never see them crawling (they're always just sitting there), but I can go over the whole plant with alcohol, and then look it back over when I'm done and see bugs right out in the open where I'm sure I covered just a few minutes before. Where in the world do they come from...?

Anyway, I noticed that I have a number of branches that are getting pretty long (I counted about five branches that have 7-10 nodes hanging off beyond the part that is wound around the lattice), so I'm thinking of cutting them, washing them REALLY thoroughly with water and alcohol, and putting them in water to root, somewhere far away from the main plant. I assume that by the time they get roots (a couple weeks, according to the prevailing opinion on the Internet) I'll also know whether I got all the mealybug eggs off of them or not, because they would hatch by then. If I win the war with the main plant, great; but if not, I can throw away the main plant and its soil, and start over with the cuttings that are bug-free. Does that sound like a good plan to you guys? I probably should be cutting these branches anyway, as they are getting pretty long. I'm usually a black thumb, but this plant seems to love me - it grows new leaves continually!

Oh, and one more question: If/when I take the cuttings, is there something I can do to ensure that I kill/remove any mealybug eggs from them? Like soak the cuttings in a bucket of water with the systemic pesticide in it, or with a little bit of alcohol in it (can't do a lot of alcohol, as I have a limited supply, but I could do 1 part per 20 parts of water or something like that)? Or do I just wash all the crevices by hand the best I can, and wait and see?

Just wash the cuttings in soapy water, then rinse.

Do you have access to horticultural oils there? They can be extremely helpful in smothering all stages of mealybugs.

I don't know what a horticultural oil is, and it's way too obscure to be in my English-Japanese dictionary. Can you explain it a little, so I can see if I can figure out the Japanese term for it? Then I can search the Internet in Japanese to see if they have them here.

Since posting that last question, I read up on the oil sprays in English and then cross-referenced. I can find Neem oil in Japan, but not other kinds that are common on English web pages (Sun Spray and Brand X are mentioned frequently in English, but not in Japanese). And that kind of thing is expensive anyway - I could easily end up spending more money to fight the mealies than the plant cost in the first place. I'm not a nursery - I only have the one plant. So for now, I think I'll stick with the alcohol, cut some cuttings as Plan B, and see how it goes from there.

Darn these things! Maybe it wasn't a joke to accuse the plant itself of growing mealies...

Two and a half weeks ago I cut off seven cuttings varying in length from 4 to 10 leaves, soaked them really well in soapy water, and carefully sprayed them off in my shower area with a detachable shower hose, especially focusing on each of the crevices where the leaves join the stems, the bugs' favorite hideout. I think I might have even sprayed them with alcohol afterward for good measure (I can't remember for sure). Then I put them each in their own container of water and placed them in completely separate areas of the apartment and balcony, to quarantine them from each other. About a week ago I checked them casually and didn't see mealies, and roots were beginning to grow nicely. Today I decided to plant them in soil, so one by one I took them to a well-lit spot and looked them over carefully, and discovered that my batting average is only .143! Out of seven cuttings, only one does not have at least one clearly visible mealy entrenched in one of the stem crevices.

So I threw out the six, and I hesitate to plant the seventh for another week or so, fearing that it too is infested but I just haven't seen the bugs yet (if I plant it and it turns out infested, I'll have to throw out the soil I just bought). There are more long shoots on the original plant that I could cut off, but if this process didn't cleanse the cuttings, what will? What should I do?

Is anyone still interested in my issue?

After I threw the six in the trash can, I thought about how they only had one or two problem spots each, usually toward the top, so I pulled back out the ones that had a few clean-looking leaf stems, cut off what wasn't clean, washed them again, and put them back in water. A week later I looked, and there was one bug and no visible "nests" (fuzzy white areas in the crevices, which look hard to get completely clean). So I removed the one bug, and am waiting some more. The roots are growing great, so I'd really like to get these in soil, but I have no confidence that the mealies are truly gone.

When you guys talk of mealies, you seem confident that on a small plant, visual inspection and physical removal with an alcohol Q-tip will actually work. Is that true? I seem to keep getting one bug or so after all kinds of efforts, even on these little cuttings. Someone please reply: when do you think I can trust that I have bug-free cuttings I can plant in soil?

I never use the Q-tip method. It's not effective in getting the tiny hatchlings that hide in the nooks and crannies. Keep a spray bottle handy and use it frequently, not just when you see the insects.

Horticultural oils (either plant based or petroleum based) are oils that come already prepared with emulsions so that it can be mixed properly with water. When applied to your plants, they very effectively smother adult soft bodied insects, their young and their eggs. I feel very sure that these products are something that you can find in Japan, as they have been an important method of environmentally responsible pest control for many generations.

{{gwi:1011839}}Sorry I didn't respond right away - I'm still not getting post notification emails.

Thanks for your reply. I read between the lines of your answer that you do think there is hope to actually eradicate these things, if I am diligent.

The leaves and stem crevices of my cuttings have had none of the typical indications of mealies for over a week (and, unlike the original plant, these cuttings are small enough that I think I can successfully check all surfaces). I was thinking I was out of the woods. But today I looked and found something new happening on underwater (and above but near the water) portions of the stems of one container of cuttings, which is a former instant coffee jar, if that is relevent. To the right is a photo of the whole thing and then one of the underwater area - you can see the stuff in the middle, and there is another cluster that is not so visible in the photo, in the brown cluster top right (above water now, but could have been underwater previously - I don't know). Below is a super-closeup of the growths themselves. Although they're white, they don't seem like mealies, because (a) I don't think mealies live underwater, and (b) when I rub the stems, the stuff does not come off easily, as mealies would. Plus, as I said, the leaves and other areas that mealies like are completely clean. Any idea what this stuff is? Are these cuttings goners?
{{gwi:1011840}}

On the other hand, the cuttings in this jar are growing like crazy - they must love the coffee residue or something. The rumor is that pothos do not multi-branch, but look at the cutting in the following photo - sorry that it's a bit out of focus, but those green shoots you see look very clearly like the beginnings of leaves, three of them on the same cutting, not just the usual one!
{{gwi:1172726}}

The white stuff looks like it may be water roots, but can't say for sure. I don't grow or root anything in water. I do know that plants have to develop a root system that is able to take dissolved oxygen out of the water in order to survive, and that these roots are quite different from a normal root system.

Pothos will absolutely develop new axillary shoots along the stem, especially when the main growing tip is pinched. Pothos NEEDS to be cut back frequently so that it will continue to stay full and shrubby all the way back to the crown.

So you don't think it's a fungus or disease? I did read people talking about water roots vs. soil roots, but the impression I got (there were no photos or descriptions) was that the roots I have (the long tan things, not the white stuff) are water roots, simply because that's what kind of roots the cutting would produce when in water, and these cuttings have only been in water for over a month since I cut them. I also have another cutting in a separate container (a small plastic pop bottle with the top cut off) that is not growing white stuff, so I was wondering if it was some sort of fungus from the residue from this container having previously had something organic (coffee) in it. I simply rinsed the jar briefly rather than washing it thoroughly, because I know that plants like coffee anyway, so I didn't think it mattered.

I appreciate Rhizo1's response, but it would also be great to hear from someone who has personal experience rooting in water - I know there are lots of you out there, because I got the idea to root in water because so many people write about doing that. I'm itching to plant these cuttings in soil, but if I need to somehow get rid of this stuff first (or not plant these at all), I want to know.

{{gwi:1172728}}Time for an update (and a question below). I posted on the hydroponics forum about the white stuff (my post), and although they also couldn't identify it, we all decided that it probably wouldn't survive out of water, so I scratched some off, gave the water a little hydrogen peroxide, and called it good enough.

I planted the first wave of cuttings - four in a soil pot with sticks to climb, and one in a little hydroponics pot I had sitting around, with just rocks and a wick (very unscientific hydroponics, but it's just an experiment). I put a plastic bag over them for the first couple weeks, to help them transition from the water environment. It has been about a month, and both are doing well (see photo on right). I then cut several more cuttings from the big daddy and washed them more thoroughly than the first wave (soaked them in soapy water for about 20 minutes before rinsing hard with water and spraying with alcohol), and then took apart the big daddy and threw away the plant and soil. I couldn't resist keeping just a couple more cuttings when I did that (they just looked so happy and healthy!), so I have a total of eight cuttings in water right now. During one of the inspections I do every few days, one adult (fairly large, actually) mealy was found, but oddly enough, it was out in the open on the side of a stem and there were no signs of nests or babies. I got rid of it and sprayed the cutting with alcohol again, and I haven't seen anything on any of the cuttings since (about six days).

{{gwi:1172729}}Meanwhile, there's the issue of the pot and lattice, and that's my next question for you guys. QUESTION HERE ;-) Conventional advice for mealy problems is to dispose of the pot entirely, but I really like this lattice and have not seen anything like it in stores. So I would like to try to reuse the lattice and pot, and the lattice is screwed to the sides of the pot for stability, so it would be nice not to have to take it apart. {{gwi:1172730}}I cleaned the soil out as best I could, and then sprayed all the surfaces with alcohol, and it has been sitting outside with nothing in it ever since. But it's hard to get all the soil out of the bottom ends of the lattice poles, because being bamboo, the end is hollow until the first joint. So I'm hoping that time will help, because I assume that if there are any eggs in there, they would have to hatch at some point, and then without any plant matter they would starve or go elsewhere looking for food. Also, the mealies I have seen are the long-tailed kind, which some websites say don't really have much of an egg incubation period at all, but do essentially a live birth. So...how long do you think I should wait before declaring that the pot and lattice are safe to use again? Or is there some other treatment I should do to it?