Strawberry and cream - Hoya carnosa 'Krimson Queen', a common variety of Hoya. (Good grower, though. I have one and it's growing like crazy.)

Lemon and cream - Hoya carnosa 'Krimson Princess', another common Hoya. I find that it reverts to green pretty easily, so make sure it has enough light.

thank you veru much for the info! there are so many different kinds, and i really dont know where to start when trying to find out about mine...

You're welcome! I'm only good with the easy ones. Some people here astound me when it comes to IDs.

May I ask where you bought those Hoyas that are afflicted with possible mealies/scale?

i purchased them online through hirts gardens, im having a heck of a time with them, i submitted pics and they dont want to give me any kind of refund until i wait two to three weeks to see in the make it or not... the thing that sucks is im just waiting for it to spread to my other plants... i was going over all of them earlier and found mealies on all of them, so i continue my alcohol swabbing and spritzing. i guess im gonna have to do it every day because i keep finding them every day.

i finally got a refund from hirts gardens for the afflicted plants, apparently after they mailed mine out they found pests on a bunch of hoyas that they still had there and sprayed them, they never would have let me known that there were possible pests if i hadnt contacted them. i am still finding pests even though i am going over them one or more times a day, today i found a very very small yellow "worm?" climbing up mine, like half way up the plant, so im guessing that is a mealie or scale at some point of its life cycle?

The worm sounds like something else, I know scale isn't ever in the form of a worm during it's life cycle. I've never really encountered mealies so I can't say, but I'm not sure it's a mealie either.

Planto

Amber, is there any way you can isolate the infested plants? You should not keep any of those plants near the others. Plant pests spread very easily to other plants.

right now there is really no way to isolate them, so ive been treating all the plants in the general area. well that sucks now that there are tiny yellow worms added into the mix of scale and mealies... i hope they are able to be killed with alcohol/water spray because thats what ive been doing to all my plants out in the sunroom...

I'm sorry to add they may also stow away or lay eggs on the crocheted plant hangers, you may wish to spray those w/ alcohol separately (while off the plant).

I know this is a real bummer moment for you and I truly sympathize.

But, it's not so bad. It's just our buddies mealybug and scale. The only two lifeforms that care as much about Hoyas as us. :P They are a part of Hoya life as surely as hair in the drain is a part of Human life. It may be to your advantage that you are perfecting your treatment regimen now, while you have a reasonable number of Hoyas. Consider it your boot camp.

Not to excuse the nursery that spread their pests to you, but if not them, it would have been someone else. There is a level of risk inherent to the collection of plants. We all have to be willing to deal with the possibility that we might draw an unlucky card here and there. We protect ourselves as much as we can, we treat the cuttings or plants when we receive them, we reward vendors who make the extra effort not to share their bugs, but the risk is still there. And if we aren't willing to accept it, we must be content with the plants we already have.

Not to say you haven't already accepted all of the above. Just... chin up and all that. ^_^

yes ive accepted this... ive grown up my whole life in a gradening type of family, except it was mostly outdoor gardening. so i was/am used to outdoor pests but i know/knew nothing of house pests... it my husband who is ready to chuck all my plants at the thought of a "pest" being on them... so ive got a question, im trying to rid my problem before it gets too bad, ive only seen probably a total of 8 to 10 scale and mealybugs in the last week, so it must not be that bad yet, and they were all on the plants that i just got, ive been treating them EVERYDAY (i know, probably over kill... but thats what im hoping for, lol) with a water/alcohol/dish soap spray, and ive been treating ALL of my plants since i cant really seperate the infected ones from the rest... now some of the spray gets on the soil, do you think this will damage the roots or the plant? do you think i should flush the soil after this? i know some of the scale and mealies are probably in the soil so im hoping that it kills them but doesent hurt my plants... all the plants im treating are my hoyas, spider plants and christmas cactus... here is a pic of how i have them hanging together... i know that these critters cant fly so they have to crawl to spread, so even though they are so close im hoping that because they are hanging it will be harder for them to spread... looking forward to hearing your ideas and insight into this matter...

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Source: Uploaded by user via Amber on Pinterest

i did think of them getting on the hangers and ive been spraying them good as i spray the plants... any idea how long they can live without something to munch on?

Personally I find both of these bugs difficult to kill with only spraying, although I do find spraying useful as a deterrent and secondary measure.

I find it much more effective to get out the Q-tip and alcohol and go over the plants painstakingly, swabbing away any offenders. Then I spray with neem and soap water every third day for a couple of weeks.

It is a good idea to consider these bugs in the same light as feline ear mites. It seems to me that they can go into some kind of hibernation and re-manifest once the conditions are right. I am not saying it's impossible to erradicate them completely, but they do often seem to spontaneously reappear 6 months later after you have completed a successful extermination cycle (even if you grow indoors and haven't introduced any new plants in the meantime). Maybe these are errant invaders that flew in through the window, but I think it's simply a dormant survivor.

I have tried a couple of times to find a good article explaining this but it's hard to research because there are so many many many casual articles to wade through before you get one with some real science in it.

I have never posted pics on this forum. Anyone feel like helping me with this so I can share?

do you use a photo sharing program like photobucket, fliker or pinterest? if not you need to have a account with a site such as this to post them on here, because they need to be imbedded into the message body... if you do have an account let me know and i will continue explaining... i use pinterest so thats the one i know how to post with...

I can do photobucket its been while since i used it. I guess i didnt think of that. Thanks I will post away I like to see other people's plants.

Mealy bugs are a bad word in my house! The only way i got rid of my infestation was a product called Consend. I used a spray with the product diluted with water and added a bit of alcohol. You have to be very aggressive with those dang bugs. I hate them with a passion I brought home an Orchid that started my nightmare.

yea i didnt know how to post pics then i found a thread about how to do it, i had a pinterest account that let me get the code for the pic and embed it into the message body, that did the trick... cant wait to see some of your pics.... and also, i think all of us hate those damn mealies and scales with a passion!

my plant shelf.

OMG SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!