Mealybugs on my Phal - Help!

[leen]

thanks cabbo and cam! i feel better knowing everyone else has experience these pests at some point, meaning mealies are quite common. i rubbed some alcohol on previously infected areas and when i swabbed the partially opened bud, i dug out not one, not two but a whole family of them! gross! hopefully i got them all and that bud will open.

[(..._...)]

Yuck!
They can get pretty large for 'pests' can't they... I found one so large I could have kept it as a pet. Atually, If there had only been one, and it wasn't tying to kill my plant collection, I would have thought it was cute! ..er kinda

I also found that they liked my phal flowers best. Luckly phal plants do not have as many crevices as dends or oncs, like my plants which were infected.

Good luck!

Cam

Originally Posted by leen

thanks cabbo and cam! i feel better knowing everyone else has experience these pests at some point, meaning mealies are quite common. i rubbed some alcohol on previously infected areas and when i swabbed the partially opened bud, i dug out not one, not two but a whole family of them! gross! hopefully i got them all and that bud will open.

[Kath]

As you say, they get everywhere. I posted up a thread on mealies some time back, and the replies I got made me realise the problem is quite wide spread. What ever you do, try and keep your plant as healthy as possible, and if the worst comes to the worse, repot and wash the plant to get all the bugs off. Good luck! As someone here said, we're all learning here, but I feel I'm having trouble making it to primary school!

[cabbo]

Where do these nasty things come from?

[phearamedusa]

I'd say they came in with another plant, most likely. That's how I got them, anyways. If they come back after the alcohol treatment, I'd re pot, and make sure to clean the roots really carefully, since they like to hide in the medium and roots as well as the plant and flowers. Keep a eye on other plants and treat as needed, and it will probably take more then one treatment to get rid of them. Good hunting and good luck.
Melanie

[leen]

it's possible they come from another plant but i only have one plant so i have no idea where mine came from. the first one i noticed was inside an unopened bud. it started to shrivel so i cut it off and forced opened the petals and there it was, a large one just sitting there! and from then on, i started noticing some more.

[orchideric]

The answer to mealy bugs is powdered Malathion - not any liquid preparation. The liquids use a few drops of xylene to get the powder into solution - xylene is uber damaging to plants.

Get a styrofoam coffee cup, put a tablespoon of powdered Malathion into it, add a couple teaspoons of water, and make it into a slurry/paste with a plastic spoon. Transfer that to your sprayer/ proportioner and throw out the cup and spoon. Add the gallon of water and up to 1/4 teaspoon of Physan.

You should get 100% kill rate with the first spraying without any damage to the plant or buds.

Hope that helps, Eric.

[Blondie]

Here's a question--what if you see no bugs but just really tiny smashed spiderweb type things or some white dust. Is that mealies? Does anyone have a photo? I don't see any bugs on mine, but I do see some random white residue.

[phearamedusa]

Blondie, check out this link mealybugs - Google Image Search

leen, its possible that the bugs were on your plant when you got it. It may have just been treated for them,so you didn't see any on the plant but they were there in the medium, or as eggs that hatched out and voila...

[Blondie]

Thank you! I'm going to drop a question in the pests section because I have paranoia lurking. Took a pic and will post there.