Quarantining for Mealy Bugs
 

When you are quarantining plants due to mealy bugs...how far away from your other plants do they need to be? A few feet? On a different stand? Across the room? In a different room?

I'm in a studio and trying to figure out details so I know what my options are that will allow me to still get my plants the light they need while I separate them from the ones that don't seem to have mealy bugs.

Thanks in advance!

mealies I think like to roam....its crazy! in my opinion, if one of my plants happened to have mealies, I would get the big guns out....like bayar 3 in one....a systemic! when they bite to suck the blood out of your plant, the bayer KILLS them!

an infection of even one plant in the middle of your plants, is serious! use the bayer 3 times, 2 weeks apart....then every month for a bit....and you might be done....

mealies get in your medium.....its time to REPOT!...if you don't want to lose your newer medium, BAKE IT! you can bake clay pots too...Clorox for all the plastic stuff....

clean the plant area. make sure there are none hiding under that book!

and that is how I would deal with it....
use the trash bag method if you have to spray indoors!

Imacloporid. Spray all the plants, and water them with the solution. Repeat in 2 weeks. Works for me.

Trash bag method for spraying? Put the plant in a trash bag and spray inside the bag? That's a good idea, never thought of that.

Across the room or separate rooms is best in my opinion. At night mealy bugs turn into galloping horses and start crawling all over the place. I've caught them in this act checking on my orchids late at night ~2am. Seems like smaller and large over-grown bugs stay put, but the medium and juvenile ones begin crawling all over the place to discover 'new territories' and a separation of a couple of feet isn't much of a barrier to them. You'll also have to use different tools on the plants and make sure you don't touch the healthy ones after working with infected ones.

To deal with mealies I've used Bayer 3-in-1 Insect, Disease, and Mite Control spray solution. It works to instantly kill any bugs that come into contact with it and it also gets absorbed into the plant. It is also pretty cheap at a local gardening store (~$10 for a small spray bottle that lasts me at least a year). Also just physically removing any bugs that I see, wiping the leaves with a solution of rubbing alcohol, and flushing the plant with a stream of room temperature water + sterilizing the pot with hot water if I'm replanting it and notice an infection.

Awesome, thanks! Also...thanks for that visual, I'm not going to want to sleep tonight. Haha.

Preferably another room for isolation. Better if on the opposite side of the house/apartment.

I also recommend imidacloprid. Spraying plants outdoors is preferable, but you can try the trash bag method. The chemical is relatively benign for humans and (mammal) pets. It is the insect killer in Advantage flea treatment (Advantage is 600 or 700 times more concentrated).

Thanks, OW, I did not know that.

Funny that the first time I check OB in a very very long time, I find a thread about my greatest nemesis- the mealybug...

I got infested with mealies back in 2008, because of a few hitchhikers on a Phal I bought. I have tried everything since then to get rid of them, including several systemic insecticides (sprayed on a weekly basis for several weeks), and every time I think they are gone, a few months later they are back.

Now, 9 years later, I have given up. They have become resistant to imidacloprid. I can't use anything else, as the Netherlands has banned a large amount of pesticides for sale to home growers. The mealies have spread several diseases among my orchids and I've lost about 2/3rds of my collection 5I used to have over 100). I have now reached the point where I'm going to throw out most of the orchids that are left, and start over. I'll only keep a handful of orchids that are mostly resistant to mealies (Oncs mainly).

So good luck with your mealy bugs...

Did you water the plants with the solution after spraying? I had a persistent problem with them but that stopped as soon as I sprayed the plant when it needed watering, and then immediately watered it with the solution of systemic.