Mealy bugs and scale. End of me I Quit

[phragman]

I have loved and enjoyed orchids for more than ten years but got a start of mealy bugs from a greenhouse (first time ever) and boy did I learn what those things are like. I have a fairly extensive collection and some nice plants but along with hand watering I pick off bugs daily or have blooms destroyed by sticky bugs and white mess...I can't take more . I've tried everything and tired of alcohol and daily time consuming tasks of picking and spraying. It is going to be a hard one but ...I QUIT! I need my life back to something other than insects.

[orchidsarefun]

Don't give up ! As for alcohol - I never swab, its too labour intensive for a bigger collection. I spray 70% rubbing alcohol direct on the plant leaves and stems - both sides. I have even dunked masdies - the entire plant ( not roots ) in rubbing alcohol. Just keep leaves from direct sun.
The only thing to do - in addition - is to have a regular spraying programme for all plants, and alternate pesticides. I use safer, sucrashield and neem oil on a rotational basis. It IS a pain but I find its the only thing that works..........and I had pest-free plants for years too. I hope to get there again !

[Leafmite]

Last fall, I discovered that a non-orchid I had bought had aphids, scale and spidermite and that these problems had quickly moved along to many of my other plants and orchids. Out of desperation, I sprayed all the infected plants with olive oil cooking spray in the evening and washed it off with soapy water the next morning (with the number of plants I have, it took some time). I haven't seen anything on my plants since.
I had mealies before and battled that for a few years with alcohol and systemic unsuccessfully until earwigs moved in one summer and cleaned off the plants. Earwigs, surprisingly, when they are not eating your plants, do a very find job of riding them of scale, aphids and mealies.
I wish there was some law that all plants had to be inspected before being permitted to be shipped. I think this is rather dangerous for agriculture and it is certainly frustrating for the plant collector.
Good luck!

[phragman]

My collection is indoors. When I have set some (crown of thorns) and a few things out I ended up getting spider mites which are equally horrible. So I can't rely on friendly bugs to do the job for me. Being indoors I need something that works . I was on my second gardenia..tossed that the other day, again mealie bugs magnet!

[cbuchman]

I also endorse the spray alcohol, and in addition I use a systemic on my non-orchid plants which are often the source of my bugs.

[Leafmite]

Yes, gardenias would be magnets. My jasmine and citrus certainly were. I had to keep the jasmine treated with systemic but I could not do this with the citrus (they were producing fruit) and I lost all but one. We use malathion for our fruit trees but I would never spray that indoors so I tried all the natural methods. I am going to stick with the olive oil spray from now on after seeing how it works. I tried it as I had read it works for lice when I was desperately searching for something benign and on hand for my plants.

[PaphMadMan]

I can certainly sympathize. I lost essentially my entire collection to mealy bugs twice in 39 years (so far), once when I was at my max of around 250 plants. Both times there were other factors that limited the time I could spend on plants. Now that I don't have pets I would go right for a systemic treatment. Anyone who has had large scale success with alcohol swabs and insecticidal soap etc. had to have been dealing with a very different kind of mealy bug than I have experienced.

[Leafmite]

The systemics I saw locally are not recommended for use indoors. What do you use and where can it be found? I really do love systemics. In the past, I used granular rose systemic but last year, for the first time, it burned the roots of many of my plants and killed some and nearly killed others. Only the roses were happy. It was quite discouraging and I think I will only use the stuff on the roses for the future.
Yes, most of my problems with pests have been with the other plants, too. I have, in the past, recommended using alcohol but it never completely got rid of the problem and it kills the leaves of some of my plants. I just wish plants were inspected before they are shipped. How nice not to need to worry that you are unleashing devastation upon your plant collection!

---------- Post added at 02:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:55 PM ----------

Wow, losing two hundred and fifty plants must have been terrible. I never had mealies until I started ordering orchids online. One must have came with them and I had no idea. The only thing I ever had in the past was aphids on my hibiscus, scale on my bay laurel and spidermite on my plumeria. It was very predictable and nothing else was ever affected. I treated the plumeria and hibiscus with the rose systemic and just kept the bay laurel cleaned up with the alcohol (a real pain).
Yeah, I have the pets, the kids, and a hubby that holds degrees in biochemistry/biophysics who is very against pesticides.

[campchi]

I read somewhere online that you can spray lysol, not sure if that will kill those nasty bugs. U can give that a try.

[S&K Maley]

If you use an Imidacloprid based systemic your scale and other pests will be a thing of the past. Could'nt be easier. Then start spraying weekly with either Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap and neem oil or just the soap and pests won't come back. Don't give up.