Mealybug Destroyer - Orchid Board

AnonYMouse · #1 01-11-2018, 02:41 AM

A little post showed up on my feed:Mealybug controls at the Conservatory of Flowers

camille1585 · #2 01-11-2018, 03:28 AM

I had tried these once in my long battle against mealy bugs, as I was working in biological control at the time. I did not find them effective in indoor (not greenhouse) conditions. Despite a pretty bad mealy infestation, there were not enough plants, and prey to keep them happy, and I found them wandering all over the living room. At first I thought it was mealies, because the larvae of Cryptolaemus beetles look a lot like mealy bugs!

Second issue was that natural enemies work by suppressing pest populations to a non damaging level and don't eradicate them. These also don't reproduce well in long tailed mealy colonies, so for this to work long term, I would have needed to continue releasing Cryptolaemus at regular intervals, and as much as I love bugs, I didn't want them crawling all over my house all the time.

AnonYMouse · #3 01-11-2018, 04:45 AM

I've never had a mealy problem. Yes, I've seen them outside. Yes, I've had them hitchhike on new plants (from reputable vendors) but they never took a foothold in my plants. Good thing too, since just seeing them get to me on a visceral level.

Just posted the link in case anyone was interested. And it's good to have your experience.

camille1585 · #4 01-11-2018, 04:53 AM

I agree that is it good info to share, and thought it was also useful to share my experience with them. For people with a greenhouse, they should work well.

I've had mealies for the past 10 years, I've never fully gotten rid of them. I thought that I had finally eradicated them this spring (thanks to OB- people recommended treating with a systemic once a week for a month, with both spraying and pot drenching), until a few weeks ago when I found them all over the large winter squash that I'm storing in our spare bedroom. After some investigating I found the source: a box of candles! A colony of mealies had survived my extermination efforts by hiding in the box, and apparently they can feed and successfully reproduce on candles... : shock: So I now have some on my orchids again, but it's too cold to put them plants outside to spray them (I refuse to use pesticides indoors).

orchidsarefun · #5 01-11-2018, 09:22 AM

Evolution has been kind to them. They remind me of the aliens in the Alien movies, virtually indestructible. Last year after placing my orchids outside I cheered because I thought I had won the fight. Then I decided to clean my plant stands and found that their fluffy egg cases were nestled out of sight in between the joints of the stands.
Needless to say that I have them again on my plants now that they are indoors. I have also observed that spraying them causes them to immediately lay eggs - basically anywhere, even on the lip of trays and plant stand joints. Another strange thing. I have never seen an intermediate stage. I always see the tiny ones or the adult ones, no sizes in between.
And if you are going to spray, do it when they are active - which is in the middle of the night and never in the day.