Steam will certainly kill them. Home steaming devices are available. But, as a microbiologist, you know you can't autoclave your entire living room, and that would be needed. One missed egg case would be like one spore on a plate.
A clothes dryer will kill the eggs if it's hot enough. I work with rescue dogs. When I bring in dogs with fleas I wash their bedding, then put it into the dryer at high heat. It kills fleas and eggs, which often survive washing. This might work for your curtains.
It's too cold outside now, but a black enclosure, like a lidded trash barrel, might get hot enough on a sunny day. It certainly would here. I don't know how many sunny days you get, but you could put a thermometer into a lidded trash container and see how hot it gets. This also might work for your curtains.
I did have another thought. Only male mealybugs of some species can fly. Females must crawl onto plants. If you were able to keep plants from touching walls or drapes, you could stand plants above moats of water with some soap added. That would prevent females from crawling into the plants. There's a reason European cities and castles were once surrounded by walls and moats. I could envision a tray filled with water on a table, and plants standing above it on inverted pots.
I would like to mention again my method of drowning insects by soaking plants in water with a tiny amount of soap or detergent, to decrease surface tension. It really does work, and it kills eggs. I have successfully treated many plants this way, including a friend's collection of several dozen Cattleyas covered with scale. I bare rooted them, and used a livestock tank for an overnight soak.
It could be done in a bathtub or sink if you don't mind soaking plants together. I generally soak them individually in a pitcher or bucket. I put weights on them to keep them submerged.
It needs to be done during warmer and less humid periods so the plants dry out quickly after the soak.
I usually don't soak plants with heavy infestations, because the insects have made holes, and if a lot of solution leaks into the plants, it can kill them. For heavily infested plants I first treat with alcohol. In a week or so, when there aren't many insects left, I perform the soak.
I last used the soak just this week. I bought a cactus in July and found mealybug egg cases on the spines. That is a sign of root mealies.
Last edited by estación seca; 02-18-2025 at 01:08 PM..
|
Linear Mode
