hi there, I need some advice as to what's going on with my succulents. See photos below. These succulents were bought about a month ago and potted into a teracotta pot. I mixed river sand, small stones with potting mix.

I've watered the plants once, as I live in Cape Town, South Africa our climate is fine for succulents. It hasn't rained much recently either.

After two weeks of looking good the one plant started dropping leaves very very quickly. The dropped leaves were yellow and mushy. So I saught help. I've grown succulents before but I've never seen this.

Was told by my local nursery to mix sugar and hot water to spray on the plant as the plant was likely being attacked by microscopic spider mites and the sugar coating would be too sticky for them and hopefully save the plant.

I tried this sugar spray, and then went away on holiday for a week and returned to see my other potted succulent (I'm not sure what kind it is, possibly also an orbiculata?) had also dropped all its leaves. I had grown this succulent from a cutting and it's been doing fine for 5 months, now suddenly it's turned to mush.

The remaining two surviving succulents have cloudy patchy leaves (possibly from sugar spray?), their bottom leaves seen soggy and yellowing and generally the plants seem distressed. What should I do? Time for a proper bug spray? What could be causing my plants to do this?

Any advice appreciated

Claire