alcohol/surgical spirit for mealy bugs
 

Hello,
I read on a thread that Phals were not harmed by the use of Alcohol or methylated spirits to fight mealy bugs. I did treat a couple of plants and they look fine for now. I did make sure i flooded all the crown area and spaces between leaves where these nasty bugs would hide. Its only been 3 days so it may be early to tell. Has anyone had damaging effects on plants by using similar method?

Also today another plant had a bug on the fresh growing secondary spike: i killed the bug without using any alcohol as i wondered if the soft fresh tissue of the emerging spike could get damaged. Should i be afraid?

thanks

I wouldn't use anything on the spikes. Alcohol can dry out the buds. The roots are tender, too. I use isopropyl alcohol to kill mealies...I seem to have finally gotten rid of the infestation. I haven't seen any since spring.
Good luck!

I've used 70% isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol on buds with no problems. Just make sure you aren't in a windy spot when using it, keep plant out if wind til the alcohol is dry. I don't know if I have used it on a very new spike ...

Thanks. I think i will stay away from fresh grown tissues. however the 3 plants i treated fully (leaves and crown) look better than my other plants for now. I will update is any negative effect appears.

Bayer 3 in 1 will kill the mealies and help keep them away. Good stuff.

For alcohol:
- 70° is best as it's the concentration where the effects are at max (in the bacteriostatic qualities in peculiar)
- or less, you can dilute more for mealies killer effect if needed (like spraying). Higher levels if used pure can harm the plant if there's cuts for example, and add no interesting effect on top.
- Best to use is isopropyl, but if you don't have a source, go using the medical Cooper 70° or methylated spirits.
- On my side, if roots are involved, and you *have* to care about treating the roots for mealies, I water the plant before alcohol as I don't use isopropyl. So it limits the quantity of ethanol/methanol sucked up, as both are phytotoxic. A little of ethanol is ok, and given there's even less methanol in methylated spirits, there's even less absorbed so it's ok.
- If you make a complete bath of the plant, I strongly recommend that you rinse after treatment.
- In the weapons you can use, there's cinnamon decoction which is 70° alcohol, with a 3 teaspoon bag of cinnamon powder left 24 hours then removed (shake the thing a few times during the 24 hours. You can spray with this, it's insecticide, bactericide, acaricide and not armful but not, never on roots! (and it smells gooood)
- I like a lot the water/alcohol/soap spray, it's my shoot on sight weapon. One liter of water, 2-3 teaspoons of alcohol, 1 tsp of liquid soap (or a bit less of liquid dishwashing liquid, but it foams a lot, I prefer soap).
- You can reduced a lot a mealies issue using these, but it's not manageable if there's more than a few plants involved.

Thank for the info: I am just reading the label of the BOOTS (brand) surgical spirit: it reads 90% Ethanol, 5% methanol and it mentions other ingredients as being:
- methyl salicylate
- diethyl phthalate
- castor oil

Believe it or not i haven't found simple alcohol in the shops here in Ireland. will keep on looking.

All ethanol for sale in Europe is usually denaturated. Save for special uses (some varnish recipes)…

Isopropyl will be "pure" if you can find it. That is: only isopropanol and water. It's not drinkable anyway.

Castor oil is ricin oil, erh… (contains toxics)
Diethyl phthalate is toxic, teratogenous.
Methyl salicylate is toxic too, used for fragrance (ripe apple)
I think it's all to help denaturate the alcohol. Each country has its own recipe for each alcohol sort, I wonder if people drink in Ireland so the authorities rely on such witchcraft to prevent the use of surgical spirits for drink. ;) ;) ;)

BTW, I wouldn't use this for anything on my body. (besides it should be 70° to me useful, 90° is for workspace asepsis)

Stick to methylated spirits (to obtain 70°, add a mass of 44% of water), or to isopropyl/isopropanol. ;)