soap on mealies?

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Hi. I just found mealy bugs on my new den. nobile... ughhh... I want to get rid of them, but am unsure of what to use. Can I use a soap spray to get rid of them? ie. one i can just mix up myself? with regular dish liquid. since I am in Canada, lots of the products you describe are different than the ones available hear, so I would like to know of a good way to attack these pests.

thanks! cam

[justatypn]

Soap has been used for centuries as an all-purpose pesticide. It disrupts insects’ cell membranes, and kills pests by dehydration. The key is not to use too much soap, or you’ll also kill the vegetation near the pests. If you follow the proportions of soap to water the vegetation should be fine.

Buy a liquid soap and not a detergent. Health food
stores have liquid soaps.

Insecticidal Soap Spray
1 to 2 tablespoons liquid soap
1 quart water

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Thanks sooooooo much for the super fast reply! I wall get the mixture ready tonight, and dunk the foliage in the mixture before going to work tomorrow morning ( I don't want to cause rot )

The place I bought it from sprayed it with alcohol beforehand, so I did not expect to see pests, but I can see a few in between the old leaves of this dendrobium. I hope it did not spread to my other plants. Will this spray hurt the leaves?, what if it gets in the bark/ sphag?

Thanks again!

Originally Posted by justatypn

Soap has been used for centuries as an all-purpose pesticide. It disrupts insects’ cell membranes, and kills pests by dehydration. The key is not to use too much soap, or you’ll also kill the vegetation near the pests. If you follow the proportions of soap to water the vegetation should be fine.

Buy a liquid soap and not a detergent. Health food
stores have liquid soaps.

Insecticidal Soap Spray
1 to 2 tablespoons liquid soap
1 quart water

[whygreenberg]

I just recently had a quick and winning battle against some false spider mites on a nobile-type Den. hybrid. Thanks to the recipes here: http://www.orchidboard.com/community...adication.html

Liquid dish soap + rubbing alcohol + water. It did dry out one of the leaves on the new growth, but other than that, it was a great success.

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by liquid you mean like sunlight or palmolive right?

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thanks for the link

That may have been the alcohol that died it out

Originally Posted by whygreenberg

I just recently had a quick and winning battle against some false spider mites on a nobile-type Den. hybrid. Thanks to the recipes here: http://www.orchidboard.com/community...adication.html

Liquid dish soap + rubbing alcohol + water. It did dry out one of the leaves on the new growth, but other than that, it was a great success.

[whygreenberg]

I guess I'm not all that sure about the distinction between soap and detergent. I used Ivory liquid dish soap cuz you know what they say...99.9% pure.

[Oscarman]

I'm with Yvan on the Ivory soap recommedation - the Canadian version of White Ivory liquid dish soap works great on pests. I have also used it for pot drenches/soaking to elimiate pests in the media.

The soap + alcohol is a great combo too.

So is this mixture:
Water 1000 ml
Hydrogen Peroxide (35%) 170 ml
Rubbing Alcohol (70%) 70 ml
Dish Soap 2 ml

Be careful with this one, as the 35% hydrogen peroxide is a very powerful oxidize and you do not want to get it everything or on you. It's a killer on a variety of pests. and fine on plants.

[Morningstarorchids]

Use Ivy Liquid, It mild,

[cb977]

I use Palmolive when I have to. I remember reading somewhere recently that you should NOT use Dawn. Something about the degreasers in it is harmful to the plants. Sorry, I have no idea where I saw it printed.