Rob, why are you neeming?

Pagan, how do you mix your neem? I mix equal parts of castile soap, pro tekt and neem oil, 1 Tablespoon each per 2 L.

I have some sort of tiny bugs milling around on the saucers under my pots. Every time I lift my pots they're there, so I rinse them off w/ super hot water, but there's more the next time I look. I've also seen them on the surface of the soil.

I've never had root mealy bugs, so I don't know what these are. I'm going to do some transplanting tomorrow, see if I can get a better idea of what's going on.

Rob

Rob, root mealy bugs are very slow-moving nasty little nits. If they are fast-moving, they are probably either thrips or some kind of springtail. This means the situation is not so dire but they can get out of hand and when they run out of detritus in the pot they will start eating roots. If you can see wings, they're probably thrips. Similar-looking things that do not have wings might be springtails.

In either case, after you have drenched your plants, you can keep these under control by really letting the substrate dry out before watering. By "dry", I mean "Wow this pot is really light now, it must need water" instead of just "the top does not feel wet". Adeniums are not supposed to sit in wet substrate anyway so it works out.

Dain, I actually use the exact concentration of neem, but only add a random number of drops of dish soap as surfactant. It never occurred to me to use this with Pro Tekt in autumn though. Is there an order of operation? I've had Pro Tek curdle into granules when added into water with the fertilizer already mixed in. Or was it the other way around? I can't remember.

Pagan

I read the recipe from a guy on amazon. He said the Pro tekt is basic and helps keep the neem dissolved. After being disappointed with other recipes, I'm glad i stumbled on that one. It makes a really nice emulsion. I've also noticed that the castile is much less bothersome on the leaves than any other kind of soap. I add the PT first, then castile, and the neem last before shaking.

Pagan - If you harass a Springtail, do they flick themselves away; like they have a spring in their tail? Because that's what these bug's seem to do under a mag glass.

I just got a new camera, and I'm sure if I knew how; I could get a really good macro shot of just about any bug..

Rob

Rob, they certainly do. I have a vast number of springtails in my containers. My adeniums do not mind. Me, neither. ;-)

For Rob. A cropped snapshot taken with my iPad: ;-)

Yes Martin, very similar to that, shorter antenna. Probably not fully mature.

I grabbed my mag glass and a sap wood splinter, and decided to piss one off; to see what would happen. Sure enough, it started running; then zing..... And it was on the other side of the saucer. I did this several times to make sure I was watching the same one. So yep, they just flick themselves out of dangers way.

If their not harmful; then I wont worry about it. Although, in my biggest Adenium; there are a bit more than I'd like.

Thanks,

Rob