spine mealies outta control!

[amanzed]

Hi CactusFanDan, you say to "dab them", but how could you dab thousands of mealies, especially on a plant with lots of spines and crevices? Or do you dab around them, and the volatiles affect mealies within a short range? I'm just trying to envision the technique.

I finally got over my pesticide-phobia and I'm embracing Imidacloprid. And Sevin. Too many recurring problems otherwise; they love to hide out in the root ball of my Crassulaceae.

[CactusFanDan]

Hi CactusFanDan, you say to "dab them", but how could you dab thousands of mealies, especially on a plant with lots of spines and crevices? Or do you dab around them, and the volatiles affect mealies within a short range? I'm just trying to envision the technique.

I used the term 'dab' more to indicate using a small amount of the substance, a local colloquialism, if you will. And as for my own use of volatiles, it depends on the extent of the infestation. A small gathering of mealies on the surface of the plant gets a touch of alcohol or whatever (I use 99.9% IPA) on a paintbrush, applied directly to the bugs. Kills them almost instantly. The alcohol isn't as viscous (or maybe it has a higher surface tension) as water so it will spread out across a good area of the plant's surface to kill quite a wide area. It also seeps into crevices surprisingly easily. For a wider application I've used a spray bottle loaded with IPA before, but you have to keep the area very well ventilated afterwards and avoid any sparks etc.

I've even soaked bare-rooted plants in IPA for a few hours without any harm to the plant for total mealie destruction, however, it's probably not something you'll want to risk trying on all your nice plants.

[mjazz]

I read that where they use cacti as fodder, to control thrips and mealy bugs, "effective control has been achieved by spraying with dithiocarbamate at 1 kg/200 litre of water".