This is very difficult to respond to without actually seeing the plant. I don't know the size. I'm not sure what spray you actually used....what % of alcohol you mixed. However, you seem to be a latent gardener in distress.

I have mandevilla as well, so I will share some experiences with you, and hopefully you will glean some useful information therein.

As I said, I have mandevilla, the white one. I found the pink one VERY prone to spider mites, and mealy bugs. I also see them on the white one from time to time, but I can control them better.

In the fall, I bring it inside, and give it a "haircut" to about a foot long. That gets rid of the trailing stuff that is a pain to work with inside. I give it a spray for bugs, as they will most certainly follow inside. The mixture is merely 1 tbl dish detergent to 1 litre (quart) of water. If persistent, one can add a tsp of alcohol or peroxide, but NEVER full strength. If using full strength, one may cure the bugs but kill the plant. The purpose is to have the plant survive our winters.

From what you are saying, it sounds like you may have used full strength alcohol on your plant. Time will be necessary to determine if you have killed the plant. They really do not like a good shot of alcohol, unlike some of my best friends.

Also, it is important that when you water, you give it a good drink, and then let it go almost dry. I take mine to the kitchen sink ( it is cropped so easy to move), and then give it a drink until the water runs through the pot. When it is drained, I take it back to its window location, which is a south window. They like to have sun. I am not aware of the mandevilla going dormant, unlike some of my tropicals ( brugmansia). When the leaves start to drop a little, then I give it another good douse of water....probably once or twice a week is all.

By the way, it is normal for it to be losing some of the leaves, but not all.

So, where does that leave us? I would recommend a good bath of the leaves. Give it a good washing, and a soaking of the plant. Then let it dry naturally in the sunniest window you can spare. Hopefully, this will help, but alas if you used full strenght alcohol, it may be too late. Not to worry though, one can obtain another in the spring.

Hi Jroot!

Thanks for the advice, and I got a pink Mandevilla. I can see some little tiny ones popping up on some of the fresher leaves, so, I think I'll give it a bath like you said.

I didn't know rubbing alcohol can kill a plant but, I used it straight on one hanging plant, to kill scales, and it's still alive but it looks unhappy. just sorta cranky looking, not loosing too many leaves, but it doesn't look like it's springing up in joy right now. The scales are pretty much gone though, I realy gave it a good bath with the stuff. Should I try to water down that other to wash off the alcohol?

Ok, back to Mandevilla. I can pobably trim those vines that keep growing then? Because it grows a lot and I don't need it to. I'd rather have more fulless than more climbing. I'm just pulling the vines off my other plants, scared that those bugs will crawl other places.

I don't have much options for windows, but the window I have is bright, just not direct sun. It's an east window. I have grow lights on too.

There are still lots of leaves there, I just figured I've been picking up so many dead ones, and this was before I used alcohol, and I didn't use it all over, I only picked off the mealy bugs with it. I was thinking I could mix water and that alcohol and wash it. But now you say use dish detergent and water. ok, but I hope the plants don't mind a little soap. one thing I'm worried about is some chemical dripping into the soil and poisoning the roots. I've already poisoned some plants with Raid, and they died off just as well as the bugs, some are barely pulling through I suppose because I sprayed those ones less. but I got all the spider mites!! hehe

I guess that's the downfall of bringing plants indoors. It seems like you gotta really work hard to rid the bugs, and then if I put them outside next year, I'll be going through this again.

Actually I'm thinking I won't. I'll just have houseplants indoors from now on.

So, yeah, you're right, I'm a newer gardener. I supposed that because when I was young my mom got me to plant things, and I learned so much, that I did learn a lot. but this year I realized I needed to learn a lot more when I stared up a full garden with tomatoes and broccoli and other stuff.

Ok, please let me know more, because I'm not even sure if it was the bug spray that hurt the plant, maybe eh? It was called "End All" by Safer's.

-Deborah

Dabbing the alcohol directly with a Q-tip onto the bugs is okay. I would not douse the leaves however. That is like our lungs to them.

When one brings plants indoors, one often has to spray every week or so for about a month. Usually three sprays will do the trick, but not always. It depends on the egg/larvae cycle. The mild soap solution won't hurt the plant, but gets on the bugs and dries them out....and that is good. LOL

Also, leaf dropping is normal, as they become accustomed to a different level of light. My hibiscus leaves are quite large in the winter, and small in the summer, but my winter leaves are smaller than my neighbour's as there they get less light than mine.

You will find that your mandevilla will be much happier outdoors next summer. Give it a string to climb up, and it will give you an amazing display of flowers.

Ah, aren't parents great? They give you some gardening skills, and initiate a quest for more. My dad was the gardener. I hated having to tend to his gardens, but learned nevertheless a healthy respect for living things. He would be proud of the gardens here, just knowing that he had some input. Alas, he never lived to see what I enjoy "playing" with here.

Hi there. I too have mandevillas. You do know there are different varieties? Some plants are larger more vining types (as the 15-20 foot, pink hybrid "Alice du Pont"), and others are smaller (as the 6-8 foot as climbers "Red Riding Hood" or "Faire Lady"- which can be tip-pinched pruned to make them bushier and smaller). Mandevillas can be put in a greenhouse to overwinter. Hope your bug problem is under control.

hi, mine must be the tall ones, I'm always pinching the little sprouts. Not interested in it climbing right now. Actually, it seems to be improving. I found some bugs on it, but the plant as a whole seems to be much happier now. It must be used to the environment now.

I woke up thinking about my mandevilla this morning. I had been neglect in providing it a place to climb. It hadn't been growing all that well this summer so I checked it out and to my horror there were all these whitish eggs at the base of most of the mature leaves AND there were ants crawling all over it. I made myself a solution as mentioned above and I hope it will do something to assist with the infestation. When you mentioned dabbing the bugs with peroxide or alcohol would it be beneficial to also dab the larvae? Should I try to wipe them off? I did a little dab to the worst parts with peroxide (I'm dealing with what I have currently on hand), but I've got to go to work, so I couldn't do a thorough job. I noticed that the chorophyl was pretty much gone from where the hightest concentration of eggs were. Also should I prune the worst parts (this will leave me with very few healthy leaves. Yuck, it makes my skin crawl.

I found neem oil was fairly good for getting rid of bugs on my hibiscus, but you do have to keep applying once a week for a few weeks. None the less, it's fairly safe and not all that smelly, so I like using it.

As for the question would they sell you a plant knowing it had bugs? Possibly, depending on the store. I was tempted when I saw a Mandevilla at Rona this summer for $8 on clearance. The thing is, it was so infested with (what I assume was) spider mites all the insecticide in the world wouldn't make that a good buy. I know they often mark down plants that look scraggly and past their prime, I guess sometimes they look scraggly and past their prime because they are overloaded with bugs.

Having said that, I was there yesterday and rescued an orchid for $5. The poor thing was on a cart in the outdoor garden centre. Lucky we really haven't had frost yet.

Good luck with your plant. I am trying to overwinter indoors a copper leaf shrub and a banana plant. I fully expect they might not look that great come March, but hopefully when they get better light they will once again perk up. I will probably, however, be battling spider mites with the banana plant. I know if you locate a plant on a cool windowsill it might actually keep the bugs at bay, versus if you locate them in a warm room where the dry heating vent keeps blowing on them.

Glen

With the mandevilla vine and the mealy bugs I think I would have taken the vine back to the nursery, complained to them and insisted on returning the plant and getting my $ back. If there are no other plants in the house with mealy bugs then it obviously was a problem that came from the nursery Deb bought it from.

Deborah, if you are still with us...how did the mandevilla do that winter?

I have brought in some mandevillas a few weeks ago and am growing them in the sunroom for the winter...trellis and all. I sprayed them with malathian last week to kill any bugs and am hoping that they will do fine now all winter without any bugs to bother them. They did drop all flowers basically right away but seem to have adjusted fine otherwise, growing new leaves already.

Brenda

Hi,
My mandevilla lived for a long time after, but died when I went on vacation for 6 months, and my mother was taking care of it. She didn't water it adequately.

I had this mandevilla growing on another trellis for a while too. But when I retrieved the trelis to use it on other things, that's when the mealy bugs appeared again on the other plants! unbelievable eh? I had the trellis stored for quite a few months ! The bugs just stayed in it, somehow, in the cracks. And so now, this trellis seems to be bug free because I soaked it in a bason for a few DAYS (just to make sure) in really heavy duty insect killer.

This may be a silly question, but, how do you find mandevilla performs as an outdoor patio plant for the summer? Do they bloom constantly or at least frequently through out the summer?

I am tempted to try one on the deck next summer but don't want something that's going to bloom for a few weeks and then not again all summer. This year I tried hibiscus and it did okay, it bloomed great for a few weeks but then took a bit of a break, but overall it threw out quite a few blooms.

Glen

Apparently they say that a 2 year old and older mandevilla vine will do much better. I bought 5 this year. 2 pink ones went into a large pot with a trellis and grew to about 4' high with only about 5 clumps of flowers on it, starting in the end of July. The flowers lasted a long time and once it started to bloom, it bloomed constantly. 2 red ones were in the ground and grew to about 3' and each only had a single clump of flowers and have now been also brought into the sunroom. The 5th one, a pink, didn't get planted, still in its original container, was badly neglected all summer, did not bloom and is also now in the sunroom.

I am hoping for much better results next summer.

Brenda

I have two pink mandevillas potted with a small trellis on either side of my front door (south facing open porch). One is blooming beautifully while the other has produced buds but never flowers. After closer inspection I noticed there are tiny green bugs all over the vine portion of the plant. They are approximately the size of a fruit fly but bright green - almost the same color as the vine.

My question is will the diluted dish detergent solution kill them and how much do you apply? (I.e. if I use a spray bottle do I spray the whole plant, just the vine, etc...). Please help!

Personally I would add just a tiny bit of dish detergent into the spray bottle (maybe add the water first as it will foam up if you add the detergent and then rushing water into the bottle). Try to spray the entire plant but especially the undersides of the leaves. Usually dish detergent/water is pretty safe for use on most plants and of course is safer than harsh insecticides. I sort of do the same thing, only add about a tablespoon of neem oil to the bottle as well.

Glen

Can I use a solution of water and blue listerene to kill spider mites? I have been using it around the deck as a skeeter repellant without much result. But its whats in my sprayer and I just noticed that my mandavilla has spdiermites, the rotten so and so's.

I have bright yellow tiny bugs on my Mandevilla. I think they were on there when I bought it. They went away without doing anything to them. Now they are back on the new growth. How do I get rid of them "naturally" if possible.

Hi all I'm glad I came upon this string. I bought a mandevilla vine this year at a greenhouse that was in a 6" pot. I repotted it into a 12" hanging basket and hung it up on a yard light which is about 6' tall. It had some bright red flowers on it when I bought it but has been growing but not flowering too much. I will be bringing it in this fall but my question is do I just cut it back and take it into the basement which will be about 60 degrees during the winter, not much light or do I cut it back and bring it into the house in a south facing window. If I take it downstairs to let it go dormant, do I water it and how much. Thanks in advance. Stan

I've been there and done this with this plant for years. But let's face it, folks: This is a northern gardening discussion group and you're trying to make a tropical plant, native to Brazil, happy in YOUR environment. If you've got a greenhouse, have at it but expect to deal with insect pests. If not, it's always going to be an uphill battle. My advice is to embrace what you have. Content yourselves primarily with natives, annuals, and the non-natives that do well in your climate. Both you and your plants will be happier and healthier. And remember, there are gardeners in the south who'd kill to grow beautiful lilacs and peonies. Amy

My first Mandivilla ... I was hooked. However, mealy bugs made me throw it out. The infestation was more than I could handle. This year (2011) I purchased 4. Two Alice du Pont and 2 Faire Ladies(my babies live indoors). I am ready for "mealy bugs" and will treat every plant inside for them.
If my babies bloom or not is fine with me. I love the greenery besides, the Mandivilla is a sexy plant. smooches

I bought my first one yesterday at Canadian Tire, as soon as I saw it I fell in love and had to have it. I have it in a West window where it will get lots of sun, it's a Alice du Pont. It wasn't cheap either, one footlong split vine in a 4" pot of peat moss for $15.

I've been over-wintering Mandevilla vines for about 3 years with some success. Every year seems to be a little better.
Even though I have lots of windows in my house, I don't have enough light for Mandevilla vines because I live in Michigan with cold dark winters and my windows are mostly Northern exposure. My Mandevilla vines live in the basement where there are no windows...only grow lights. I use an Orchidarium. This provides humidity, air flow and substantial light. The plant blooms all winter, and then goes sort of dormant and is re-awakened in May/June when it's replanted outdoors. My Mandevilla vine lives in a pot on a shepherd's hook outside...so there probably aren't many bugs to begin with. I do wash the leaves and rinse the soil and repot it before bringing it in. I put a Krogers bag loosely around the pot. This makes it easy to spot soil type bugs. I use a wet-vac to vaccuum any dropped leaves ASAP. As the plant begins to drop more leaves, I begin light fertilizing. Hope this helps.

I have a Mandevilla also, my neighbor was going to toss. I overwintered it. Now they are still alive but my question is it is in a large hanging basket, do I trim and of the roots from the bottom when I repot it because the root ball seems to be coming out of the soil?

Hi...im in IL and just planted 5 mandavillas on my fence. They say that they will survive a mild winter. So i am just wanting to know if Seven bug killer for roses will be fine to use on the mandavillas? A couple of them have brown spots on all its leaves. Thanks got your time!