01.12.2017 2 707

Mealybug, how to deal with houseplants - chemicals and folk remedies

The primary concern of the grower, who discovered a pest called mealybug on green pets, is how to deal with this microscopic sucking insect on indoor plants. Few people try to understand how and how this small harmful insect lives, and this information helps to choose the most effective means of dealing with this pest.

Mealybug on an orchid - pictured

It is good to use other forms of insecticides in parallel with the described means, for example, sticks for dipping into the soil - such a mealybug remedy helps to destroy females hiding in breeding pots. The active substances from them spread in the soil coma and partially penetrate the plants, making them poisonous to the pest.

What is the mealybug afraid of - folk methods of struggle

fight against mealybug - in the photo

Soap solutions and emulsions are not suitable for houseplants with hairy leaves, but they are good when a mealybug has settled on a cactus, streptocarpus, or other cultures with smooth leaf plates. If a malicious worm is found on violets, gloxinia and similar plants, it is worth using other means:

• Infusion of shag;
• Decoction of rhizomes of cyclamen;
• Tincture for alcohol from horsetail;
• Water infusion of garlic.

These products can be applied with a sprayer, but in some cases it will be necessary to additionally treat the plants with cotton swabs dipped in them.

Mealybugs are quite common pests on indoor plants - home conditions for them are just perfect for rapid reproduction - warm and dry. Worms do not like high air humidity - this is not an obstacle to their reproduction, but humid air hinders the development of a pest colony.

Almost all types of mealybugs look the same at first glance: white lumps, similar to cotton wool on the surface of the leaves, in the internodes, in cacti, entangle the stems with a dense cocoon. Single specimens, fattened and insolent, crawl right in the light:

Plants damaged by mealybugs suffer very severely and often irreversibly: the leaves turn yellow and fall off. Shoots lag behind in growth. The worms climb under the bark of citrus fruits and under the scales of bulbs in bulbous ones. Sometimes the damage is so rapid that the leaves do not even have time to turn yellow - they dry out, become mummified gray. Sometimes a sooty fungus settles on the secretions of mealybugs - black terry spots are formed, as if covered with coal dust.

At the beginning of infection, the mealybugs settle in the root zone, under the lower leaves, among the upper drainage in a pot, even in the upper layer of the earth. Gradually, they spread over the plant higher and higher. Sunlight doesn't bother them.

Mealybug: how to fight on houseplants

The first step is to wipe the plant with a sponge or cotton swab dipped in soapy water, kerosene, alcohol or vodka. To extract the worms from the axils of the leaves (and they sit very tightly, climbing deep into the stipules), you can use a cotton swab soaked in alcohol, or soften the tip of a toothpick. It is very important to mechanically select all pests before spraying with pesticides, i.e. by hand. If the plant allows, then wash off the colonies of mealybugs with a powerful pressure of hot water (45-50 degrees). And only then proceed to the treatment with drugs.

Double exposure is most effective against worms, for example, watering with actara and spraying with actellik, karbofos, this is especially important for plants with leathery dense leaves. If you have children at home, then it is better not to use strong-smelling products, but to spray and pour with a solution of any systemic drug: these are actara, tanrek, confidor or Apaches (they have almost no smell, see preparations). Do not look at what is written on some insecticides: "from the Colorado potato beetle" - they successfully destroy the worms.

• aktara from a mealybug: dissolve 4 g of the drug in 5 liters of water for irrigation and spraying;
• mealybug tanrek: 1.5 ml per 5 liters of water for spraying or 1.5 ml per 2.5 liters of water for irrigation;
• Apaches for mealybug: 1 sachet (0.5 g) per 2.5 liters of water for spraying or 1 g per 1 water for irrigation;
• confidor from a mealybug: dilute 2 ml of the drug in 5 liters of water for spraying or 2 ml in 2.5 liters for irrigation;

After 5-7 days in hot weather or after 7-10 days if it is warm but not hot, the treatment must be repeated. A maximum of 3-4 treatments are used. The worms are very resistant pests, so the success of the cure depends on how carefully you clean them from the plant and evenly spill and spray the soil.

root bug

Most rootworms belong to the genus Rhizoecus. This type of mealybug may not be noticed on the plant before transplantation, or they can be found near the roots, in the region of the root neck of the plant. Most often they harm cacti and succulents, but this is not necessary, they just more often come from abroad from greenhouses with cacti, but they may well be found in other plants from the store.

Adult insects are about 2 - 5 mm long with an oblong or drop-shaped body. Segments and small bristles are clearly visible, covered with a white waxy coating, a young colony consists of pests of different ages, as a rule, looks like a very thick cobweb or pieces of cotton wool. Some mistake nesting sites for salt deposits or mold. Just take a magnifying glass and take a closer look.

Affected plants lose almost the entire root system, so they immediately stop growing, the leaves turn yellow, dry and die. Cacti, affected by root scales, slowly turn into a mummy - a withered, dirty gray stem, translucent spines. The plant will die if no action is taken.

Control measures

As a pest prevention - when transplanting a plant, you need to carefully examine the roots. If pests are found, disinfect the pot (scald with boiling water), carefully clean the roots of the old earth, rinse the plant roots in an insecticide solution and plant in fresh soil. If it is not possible to transplant a flower, you need to water the ground with systemic insecticides that penetrate into the vessels of the plant and cause the death of pests - these are actara and confidor.

Actara should be diluted as follows: 1 g of the drug per 10 liters of water. If you decide to transplant - immerse the root part of the plant in the solution and soak for 5-7 minutes. If you do not have either actara or confidor, you can use any insecticide, for example, actellik, decis, karbofos. If the root system of the plant is fibrous, densely braiding an earthen lump, then you need to prepare a solution and immerse the plant in it for 20 minutes (with roots). Then dip several times in the solution along with the leaves. Leave to lie down for 5-10 minutes, then rinse the plant under a warm shower.

Always sterilize the soil before planting any plants. Either in the microwave (for about 5 minutes 1 liter of soil) or oven on a baking sheet for about 20 minutes at 200 degrees.

Mealybugs (lat. Pseudococcidae), or false pillows, or felters represent a family of hemipteran insects, including more than 2200 species. Only 330 of them are found in Europe. The mealybug is a widespread insect that damages forage, greenhouse and indoor plants, including cacti and succulents. The people of these pests are called "hairy lice."

Mealybug pest - description

The mealybug has a characteristic appearance and a large size compared to other insects, however, an inexperienced florist may not immediately detect the beginning of the occupation, which greatly complicates the fight against the pest.

In length, the mealybug can reach from 3 to 10 mm. Females and males differ significantly in appearance. The female pest has an oval body covered with white powdered wax, she has many short legs and long filiform antennae. The larva of the mealybug is similar to the female, but smaller in size. And males are winged insects resembling flies or mosquitoes. They do not have a mouth apparatus, do not feed on plants and do not harm them.

What is the harm of mealybugs? These are sucking pests that feed on cell sap, which leads first to a slowdown, and then to a complete cessation of plant growth and development. In the process of life, mealybugs secrete honeydew, or honeydew, a sweet and sticky liquid, which is a favorable environment for the development of various fungal diseases, in particular soot fungus. The mealybug pest damages all organs - both ground and roots, and easily moves to neighboring plants.

Of the many species, the best known are the greenhouse scale, bamboo, citrus, seaside, vine, Australian grooved, root, bristly, and Comstock mealybugs.

Mealybug - preventive treatment

In order to prevent pest damage to plants, it is necessary to carry out the following preventive measures:

• check plants regularly especially the underside, leaf axils and buds;
• promptly remove dried leaves, shoots, branches and buds that attract pests;
• observe the irrigation regime: moistening should be regular and sufficient;
• from time to time arrange a warm shower for indoor flowers;
• quarantine every new plant, that is, keep it at least a couple of weeks away from other indoor flowers and be sure to treat it with an insecticide for preventive purposes.

Mealybugs feel good at temperatures above 25 ºC and high humidity, therefore, in such conditions, preventive inspection of plants should become frequent and mandatory.

How to deal with mealybugs at home

Mealybug remedies (drugs)

How to treat plants from mealybugs? Almost all insecticides cope with this pest, but the following are considered the best of them:

• Admiral - hormonal insecticide of intestinal contact action (active ingredient - pyriproxyfen);
• Actara from a mealybug - an insecticide of intestinal contact action (active substance - thiamethoxam);
• Actellik is a non-systemic organophosphorus insectoacaricide of enteric-contact action (the active substance is pirimifos-methyl). Due to the high toxicity, the drug is not recommended for indoor use;
• Appleud - insecticide (active ingredient - buprofezin);
• Bankol - intestinal-contact insecticide (active ingredient - bensultap);
• Biotlin
• Bitoxibacillin - a biological preparation with insectoacaricidal properties to protect plants from pests;
• Inta-vir is a broad-spectrum insecticide with enteric-contact action (active ingredient is cypermethrin);
• Komandor - a systemic insecticide of intestinal contact action (active ingredient - imidacloprid);
• Confidant - a systemic insecticide of intestinal contact action (active ingredient - imidacloprid);
• Mospilan - a systemic insecticide of intestinal contact action (active ingredient - acetamiprid);
• Tanrek is a broad-spectrum systemic intestinal-contact insecticide (active ingredient is imidacloprid);
• Fitoverm is an insectoacaricide of biological origin of intestinal-contact action (active ingredient is aversectin).

In addition to those described, there are other effective drugs. against mealybug, for example, Duntop (Ponche, Apaches), Vertimek, Spark Double Effect and Calypso.

Mealybug on orchids

The mealybug settles on ficus, dracaena and even on cacti, but most often the mealybug appears on flowers - on orchids and violets, for example. To determine, when examining your indoor plants, that this particular pest has settled on them, the following symptoms will help you:

• the plant is as if sprinkled with a loose powdery coating;
• the flower wilts, its leaves lose turgor;
• sticky spots of honeydew form on the external organs of the plant;
• the plant is covered with oval white insects.

If you find at least one of the listed signs, immediately proceed to save the flower. How to deal with a mealybug on an orchid? First of all, it must be isolated so that pests do not spread to other flowers. Dilute 2 g of green soap in 100 ml of water and very carefully wipe the ground organs of the orchid with this solution using a sponge or cotton pad. It is necessary to penetrate into the gap between the trunk and leaves with a brush moistened with a solution, since pests like to settle in hard-to-reach places. Don't forget to wash the leaves from the underside. After that, you need to spray the flower three times with an interval of 7-10 days with some kind of folk remedy (infusions of tobacco or garlic, decoction of cyclamen). Only three times the treatment of the orchid will give the desired result, although it will seem to you that the pests have disappeared after the first spraying.

Of the chemicals against mealybugs on the orchid, Fitoverm, Intavir and Bitoxibacillin are the most effective.

Mealybug on violets

For violets, the mealybug is the most complex and insidious pest. It is difficult to track the moment of the appearance of a mealybug on violets, since almost its entire cycle takes place underground. But even when the enemy is discovered, it turns out that it is not so easy to fight him: he is perfectly protected by the structural features of his body.

In the fight against mealybug on violets, do not waste time trying to cope with the pest with folk remedies, but immediately apply systemic insecticides. It is best to treat violets with Aktellik: 2-3 sprays at weekly intervals with a solution of 2 ml of the drug in 1 liter of water will destroy insects of all stages of development, except for eggs. However, the treatment of plants should be carried out outdoors. If after that, worms appear on the violets, you will have to remove each plant from the pot, clean the roots from the soil, carefully treat the stem, axils of the lower leaves and violet roots with a systemic insecticide, and then plant the plant in a fresh substrate.

Mealybug on cactus

If your cactus suddenly began to grow slowly, but you did not find any pests on it, this does not mean that they are not there: you need to inspect the root system of the plant. Usually the worms suck the juice from the fresh growth of the tops of cacti and other succulents, but at the same time they can be found on the roots at the base of the stem and in an earthy coma. Signs of the harmful activity of mealybugs on a cactus can be deformation of young leaves and growth points, as well as brown or reddened marks - bite sites.

To kill mealybugs on cacti, you will need 3 treatments of the above ground parts of plants with a systemic insecticide at intervals of 10-15 days. During each spraying, it is necessary to shed the insecticide solution and the soil in which the cacti grow.

Hot water has a very effective effect on the pest: the plants are taken out of the pots and washed under running water at a temperature of 45-50 ºC, mechanically cleaning the pests from them and washing the roots from the ground. After washing, the cacti are completely immersed in a solution of a systemic insecticide for several hours, then dried and planted in a fresh, disinfected substrate. Of the chemical preparations for combating worms on cacti, Decis, Apollo, Karbofos, Fufanon, Aktellik, Sherpa and preparations based on imidacloprid have proven themselves well.

If there are few pests, it may be enough to treat the plant with garlic tincture. It is more convenient to do this with a cotton swab.

Mealybug on dracaena

A sign of defeat by mealybugs of dracaena is a white coating and spots of honeydew on the stems and leaves of the plant, the loss of turgor by the leaves, the formation of brown spots on them and the curvature of the stem. Mealybugs appear on the plant in conditions of too high humidity at temperatures above 25 ºC.

It is necessary to deal with the mealybug on the dracaena comprehensively, that is, in addition to processing the plant by the leaves, it is necessary to disinfect the soil in which the dracaena grows. Of the chemicals in the fight against the worm, Fitoverm has proven itself well, which should be treated with the plant 4 times with an interval of 1 week. Confidor copes well with the pest, but Aktara is still the most effective remedy: for spraying dracaena on the leaves, a solution of 4 g of the drug in 5 liters of water is used, and for soil cultivation in a pot, 0.7 g of Aktara should be diluted in 1 liter of water. However, whichever preparation you prefer, first try to wash the insects off the plant or remove them with a cotton swab dipped in soapy water.

Mealybug control in the garden

Mealybug on grapes

If the clusters on your grapes look pale and droopy, and in some places you notice shreds of plaque that look like pieces of cotton wool, inspect the bush more closely: it may be infested with mealybugs. You need to start fighting them right away. And keep in mind: there are no grape varieties resistant to this pest, no matter what the sellers tell you.

Preventive treatment of grapes from worms is carried out in early May, when the females lay their eggs. For spraying on the leaves, systemic preparations Aktar, Actellik, Golden Iskra, Mospilan or Confidor are used. If the mealybug has already settled on your grapes, then one treatment will not solve the problem, but if you regularly use systemic insecticides for preventive purposes, then one spray may be enough.

If you have ants on your yard, you need to get rid of them, as they spread the mealybugs around the garden in the same way as aphids.

In the fall, before preparing for winter, remove the old bark from the worm-infested grape bush and burn it along with the pests.

The fight against mealybugs on other garden plants is carried out in the same ways, including preventive measures.

The fight against mealybug folk remedies

With a slight defeat by mealybugs of berry plants, it is better to use folk remedies that are less toxic than chemical insecticides:

• oil remedy: 2 tablespoons of olive oil are mixed in 2 liters of water and this emulsion is applied to the ground parts of the plant with a spray;
• horsetail tincture: This drug is sold in pharmacies and is used as a diuretic and blood cleanser. Plants are treated with horsetail tincture with a cotton swab;
• alcohol solution with soap: 1 g of liquid soap and 10 ml of denatured alcohol are dissolved in 1 liter of warm water;
• infusion of garlic: 4-5 chopped cloves of garlic are poured into 500 ml of boiling water, the composition is allowed to infuse for 4-5 hours, filtered and immediately used to spray plants;
• garlic tincture: pour one part of chopped garlic with three parts of seventy percent alcohol and treat the plant with this composition with a cotton swab;
• citrus infusion: 50 g of orange, tangerine and lemon peels are poured into 1 liter of warm water, infused for a day, filtered and immediately used to spray the affected plants;
• tincture of calendula: 100 g of dried calendula flowers are poured into 1 liter of water, insisted for a day, then filtered and rubbed with infusion of infected places;
• hot water: the plant is taken out of the pot, its roots are cleaned from the ground, after which it is completely immersed for 15 minutes in water at a temperature of 45-55 ºC, after which it is dried and transplanted into a fresh disinfected substrate.

However, we do not recommend relying on folk remedies, since they are effective only with a small number of pests, at the initial stage of damage and for prevention purposes. If there are a lot of mealybugs, do not waste time and immediately start treating the plant with a systemic insecticide.

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After this article, they usually read

Fans of breeding home flowers are probably aware of how dangerous some pests are. But even among the most harmful and dangerous, one can always single out the very best, which you would not wish any florist to encounter.

It is to such especially dangerous pests that the mealybug belongs. He literally “drinks all the juices” from home and garden plants, and this continues until the plant finally dies.

The body structure of a mealybug has specific features, for example, males of this species have a more pronounced body structure, while females outwardly look more like oval-shaped larvae than an adult insect.

The mealybug is very mobile and retains the ability to move fairly quickly at any age. A distinctive feature is the absence of a mouth apparatus, since in adulthood they do not feed. Most of the species lack legs and reproduce by laying eggs.

Like any other similar pest, the mealybug has a huge fecundity, most subspecies are able to give up to four generations per year.

The mealybug tends to gather in large quantities, in places where they accumulate on plants, white fluffy masses form. Outside, the body is also covered with a whitish coating, thanks to which insects prevent the loss of water from their soft bodies.

A comfortable habitat for these insects are warm and humid, protected from the harsh environment.

Mealybug species

It is not easy to classify such a pest as a mealybug, because. depending on climatic and other conditions, an incredible number of insect subspecies can be found.

The mealybug infects a huge number of different plants and crops.

Signs of a mealybug attack

In the case of small pests, finding uninvited guests on your favorite flower is far from easy.

The mealybug does not differ in this property, because. adult individuals are quite large in size, and leave a large number of characteristic traces, which means that it can be detected almost immediately after it appears on the flower.

• The growth of the flower is noticeably slowed down. This phenomenon occurs due to the fact that pests literally drink all the juices from it, therefore, there are simply no nutrients to continue growth and development. On the affected plants, new leaves and shoots cease to appear, and a characteristic white coating also appears.
• Leaves and petals begin to fall off the plant, before this, a dying process occurs, in which the leaves slowly turn yellow due to a lack of nutrients.
• Runaway deformation. Deformation of plant shoots is also the result of the influence of pests. Not only the shoots, but also the stem and the flowers themselves are subject to a change in shape. It is quite difficult to miss this fact, so the presence of a mealybug will not go unnoticed.

How to get rid of the mealybug?

There are several main methods of dealing with mealybugs - this is the fight with special chemicals or the use of traditional folk recipes.

To combat the mealybug chemically, it is allowed to use the following drugs:

• Decis.
• Vertimek.
• Tsvetofos.
• Nurell D.
• Phosphamide.
• Bi-58.
• Aktelik.
• Fitoverm.
• Upload.

There should not be any particular difficulties with the use of these drugs. The most important thing is to carefully study the instructions and fully comply with all safety precautions.

Do not forget that many substances can destroy a flower if they are used incorrectly, and in the case of a high concentration, their use can adversely affect human health.

Common folk ways to deal with mealybugs are:

• Herbal tinctures. An excellent way to exterminate a mealybug from a favorite plant is to use calendula or horsetail powder. You can buy it at any pharmacy; you don’t need special skills or knowledge to prepare the composition. The whole recipe is as follows - 100 grams of dried herbs are poured with one liter of boiling water, after the solution is infused and cooled down, it can be applied to the plant.
• Garlic tincture. The recipe also differs little from herbal tincture. The crushed and peeled head of garlic is poured with water and left to infuse for 4-6 hours. After the composition is completely ready, the plant is processed with a sponge.
• Oil emulsion. It will take two tablespoons of olive oil and a liter of water, the resulting liquid is thoroughly mixed and used to spray infected plants.
• Soap-alcohol solution. A solution made from soap and alcohol is one of the most effective and common folk ways to deal with a worm. It is prepared as follows: in one liter of warm water, a teaspoon of grated soap and one tablespoon of ethyl alcohol are diluted. The resulting composition is sprayed onto the affected areas with a spray gun. A day later, after the solution is applied, it should be thoroughly washed off with water. And after another three days, it is allowed to repeat the procedure to achieve a better effect.
• Lemon or orange peel. Another common method of struggle is the use of lemon and orange zest. To obtain a solution, you will need to pour boiling water over the same citrus peels and leave to infuse for a day. When ready for use, spray the plants. To say, by the way, in addition to the amazing effect, a rather pleasant aroma also spreads throughout the room.

Prevention

Getting rid of the mealybug is finally quite difficult, if not impossible. Therefore, in order to avoid its occurrence, it is reasonable to carry out regular prophylaxis among indoor plants.

Preventive measures include, first of all, proper care and regular inspection of flowers. In this case, special attention should be paid to parts of the lower leafy growths, because. this is where the first stage of pest infestation usually occurs. Do not be afraid to remove dried leaves of plants, because. they tend to attract unwanted insects.

Conclusion

Taking care of indoor plants is not always a simple and easy task. In addition to the fact that many types of flowers require increased attention and care, there are also a lot of diseases and pests from which the plant can die.

Cultivation of flowers is somewhat reminiscent of keeping pets, which also require constant attention and care.

Mealybug - a dangerous pest of indoor plants, it can live on almost all species: on cacti, succulents with thick skin and thorns, with hard leaves, woody stems and twigs, multiply on flowering or decorative deciduous crops.

In the list of the most vulnerable plants to this pest, there are almost all popular indoor plants - adenium, azalea, anthurium, ardisia, asparagus, brunfelsia, bougainwellia, gardenia, gerbera, hibiscus, hippeastrum, dieffenbachia, kalanchoe, camellia, codiaum, monstera, orchids, oleander , pereromia, ivy, violets, ficuses, philodendron, fuchsia, chlorophytum, hoya, cyperus, all citrus fruits, cissus, shefler.

Botanists divide the mealybug by species, in total there are more than one and a half thousand varieties, but on houseplants, seaside, bristly, grape scales are most often found, there is also a citrus fruit that can infect plant roots underground.

This pest on a house plant is identified by a white, fluffy coating that looks like pieces of cotton wool., adhering to the bases and veins of the leaves, on the tops of the shoots and the internodes of the stem. These practically immobile small insects settle in places where it is easiest for them to suck the juice from the plant.

When magnified, under a white coating, you can see the owners of fluffy shelters, they look like small wood lice with long segments. One female mealybug can lay from 300 to 800 eggs, from which a new generation is born in 5-10 days. The mealybugs protect themselves and their ovipositors from external influences with a powdery wax coating.

Like many sucking insects, worms, after digesting the juice of a plant, secrete a sticky liquid - a span, it is also called honeydew.. Sometimes pests can be detected by the smallest sticky droplets on the surfaces around the plant - windowsill, glass, leaves and stems become sticky and can be covered with black bloom - a sooty fungus that quickly develops on such secretions.

Feeding on the juice of the plant, mealybugs greatly weaken them.. Shoots and leaves with a cottony coating seen on them are stunted, deformed, twisted. Sometimes the pest hides on the underside of the leaves, then yellow dots appear on its front side, which gradually grow. With the mass reproduction of the worm, the plant withers, gets sick and may die.

The complexity of the fight against the mealybug that appeared on domestic plants is that this pest reproduces very quickly and massively.. Insects are protected by an erected wax coating barrier, so spraying is ineffective for them, and manually removing the pest from the plant is difficult. The smallest eggs laid cannot be completely removed from the plant by wiping or washing it in the shower, and spraying with chemicals does not work on them. Insecticides destroy only insects born from eggs, so the treatment is carried out several times to destroy the pests that have appeared from the preserved eggs.

You can get rid of the mealybug on indoor plants only by their systemic treatment, combining mechanical and chemical methods..

A one-time washing or spraying of a flower from a mealybug will not give results, because if one egg invisible to the eye remains on the plant, a young mealybug will appear from it in a few days, which in two months will reach its maturity and begin to make new mass egg-laying, of which in its own In turn, whole colonies of sucking pests are born.

Removing a mealybug by hand is a laborious task, sometimes it is impossible to carry out, since the plant may have numerous tiny leaves, twigs or protection with thorns, then a shower and spraying with insecticidal preparations are used.

If you do not have the opportunity to devote a lot of time to pest control of indoor plants, there is an easy way - watering potted plants with water with an insecticidal preparation diluted according to the instructions. The poison enters the juice of the plant, which feeds on sucking insects and they die. The advantages of this method are that the action of the insecticide in the soil is long - 2-3 weeks and this is the only way to destroy the mealybug living in the soil.

How to deal with mealybugs on houseplants?

First of all, mechanical processing is done to reduce the number of pests on the plant. To do this, wipe all the leaves and stems of the plant with a cotton sponge or sponge dipped in an alcohol, soap or garlic solution, erasing all the white bloom. Up to 80% of the pest can be removed manually, but small egg-laying will probably persist.

To wipe with an alcohol solution, vodka is mixed with water one to one. As a soap solution, you can mix ordinary dishwashing detergent in water. Rubbing is effective for plants with large and large leaves, such as rubber ficus.

Prickly cacti and small-leaved plants infected with a pest can only be washed in the shower. Perform water procedures with hot water, with a temperature of + 35 ... + 40 degrees, so that the leaves do not boil. It has been established that eggs and larvae of the mealybug die in hot water. If the plant is small, then it can be dipped upside down in water heated to the desired temperature for 20-30 seconds, covering the ground with a bag and holding the pot with your hands.

With the help of mechanical processing, all pests cannot be destroyed, therefore, after they are carried out, chemical agents are used.

One-time spraying with a chemical agent will not work, since the drugs do not act on eggs, but only kill adult insects and born larvae. Therefore, spraying plants with the drug should be done every 7-10 days for a month in order to destroy the emerging insects from the larvae remaining on the plant.

You can choose a simple way to kill a mealybug - poison its food or plant sap. After watering a potted plant with water with an insecticidal preparation, it will absorb the poison and the juice of the plant will become poisonous for the insects sucking it.

For irrigation, the selected preparation is diluted according to the instructions.. It is recommended to treat all nearby plants in this way in order to exclude their infection. It is enough to make 1-2 waterings, after 2-3 weeks, within 1-1.5 months, all pests on indoor plants will die. Dead insects with traces of their vital activity are washed off in the shower or removed from the plant by wiping them with an alcohol solution.

The following preparations are effective against the mealybug - "Aktara", "Confidor", "Mospilan", "Tanrek".

Rules for the treatment of indoor plants from pests:

The first thing to do is to isolate diseased plants by moving them to another window sill or, better, to another room for treatment.

In the same place, do a wet cleaning by washing all surfaces with soapy water - a window sill, walls, glass.

It is convenient to manually remove pests from green pets in the bathroom, but it is better to spray them with toxic insecticidal preparations on the street or in non-residential premises. After spraying plants with chemicals, the living room is ventilated and wet cleaning is carried out.

When working with insecticidal preparations, use gloves and a mask, then wash your hands and face with soap and water.

All chemicals have instructions for diluting a solution intended for spraying or for irrigation; it must not be exceeded. Leftover medications should not be stored.

Do not mix several preparations for the treatment of plants. If you use one remedy and it does not help, take another one for the next treatment.