Hi everyone
Just found
this dedicated page for mealubugs identification
The author is
Lance S. Osborne
Professor of Entomology
University of Florida
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Another interesting reading, is
this page
It says that mealybug life cycle is greatly effected by the high Nitrogen consentration on the plant
I quote
The results of this study show that the citrus mealybug life history parameters were influenced by the applied nitrogen concentrations (ppm), leaf nitrogen concentration (%), and total moisture content (g). Citrus mealybugs feeding on both green and red-variegated coleus, receiving the high nitrogen fertilizer concentrations (200 and 400 ppm) had the greatest egg loads, were larger in size, and had the shortest developmental times.
......
Thus, higher nitrogen concentrations, in the form of supplemental fertilizers used in greenhouse production systems, leads to an increase in the performance of citrus mealybugs as defined by increased egg loads, larger mature females, and shorter developmental times
I know that mealybug is most active during the warmest months (spring) and typically, you would use fertilizer during this months to boost your cacti growth...well, i guess that explains the heavy outbreak during those months...
Ao be careful when applying your N fertilizer...
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The last one is
this post
This study tells us that peat based medium (represented by
Metro Mix 360) supports the outbreak of mealybug...shown by the much higher number of individual when the outbreak occurs...
When that peat based medium is subtituted by a percentage of other medium, the amount of individual drops significantly
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Conclusion
What do all this scientifique studies tell us?
We might have to rethink about the type of medium we used and our fertilization regime...
It is better to prevent than a long talk about "what insecticide is better?", "how to kill it effectively?" etc
The keys
Warm months
High Nitrogen content in plant tissue
Peat based medium
Equals super outbreak
Edwin