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Sanguine
Candy flippin'



Registered: 11/08/09
Posts: 1,332
Loc: Southeast
Last seen: 6 years, 1 month
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Mealy bugs (questions about roots, and garlic in soil?)
#14569056 - 06/06/11 11:45 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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My cacti collection had a pretty nasty mealy bug outbreak recently. It got my bridgesii pretty hard, and my loph/periskiopsis graft started wilting, so I think it had some in the roots. I used rubbing alcohol to get the ones I could see, sprayed the cacti with a mix of dish soap, water, and hot sauce (I didn't boil it first, should I have?). I washed the soil off the roots and the plants are ready for repotting, and I have a couple questions:
Should I spray the roots with the mixture of soap/hotsauce? I don't think so but I want to double check. Also, I read about people sticking a clove of garlic with the root part cut off into the soil, and it prevents mealy bugs from attacking the roots. I was wondering if anyone has done this and if it effects the alkaloids in the cactus? I read about people putting mothballs in the soil, but if garlic works i'd rather do that.
Thanks!
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   "The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me, and I to them." --Ralph Waldo Emerson Ozz's Poo Pictorial Shirley Knott's Spore Print Tek No PC wbs APE grow log
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cc2
Mush

Registered: 05/15/10
Posts: 2,611
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Re: Mealy bugs (questions about roots, and garlic in soil?) [Re: Sanguine]
#14570714 - 06/06/11 06:12 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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enviromentally friendly solutions would be introducing predator insects (not just 1 or 2 though, like buying them) or rubbing them away by hand.
if you consider chemical treatment though, here's what I found: Tokuthion - 5ml/10l water Chlorpirifos - 100ml/10l Confidor - 10ml/10l Malathion - 25ml/10l
these are the most common used products I think. each one of these will take care of the infestation alone.
source: succulents.co.za
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Mostly_Harmless
wyrd bið ful aræd



Registered: 05/12/09
Posts: 5,043
Loc: Perfidious Albion
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Re: Mealy bugs (questions about roots, and garlic in soil?) [Re: Sanguine]
#14573239 - 06/07/11 08:15 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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I have some mealy to deal with too at the moment. Just set up a new greenhouse, so nothing is going in there until the roots have been thoroughly cleaned and treated with a neem oil spray as a preventative to further infestations, with regular future sprayings. Sucking insects really don't like this stuff, so it will hopefully keep red spider mites away too.
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