You can spray the plant with water/alcohol. It may ruin the blooms but not killing the bugs will do worse (to your whole collection).

You'll need to reapply every 3 days for at least 2 weeks to work with the life cycle of the bugs. The frequency is to prevent newly hatched bugs from becoming breeding age and the length of time is to cover each successful hatching of eggs that have already been laid.

Hi Agartta, as the others have said, these are definitely mealy bugs. We have had these over the years on occasion.....but, we have never found them to be a big problem, (although they can damage the flower buds and new growth causing deformed leaves and buds.) You can just squish them with your fingers and then use the jet setting on your hose to remove any leftovers. This is all we ever had to do with ours.

BUT, if you have lots of these on multiple plants, I would recommend using your “eco oil.” You will need to spray everywhere you see them, including your flower buds unfortunately. If your eco oil is not treating them quick enough you could buy “eco neem” made by the same company as your eco oil. I spotted this product for sale recently at our local Bunnings. As Pete said the ‘neem’ will probably work quicker.

High humidity tends to bring these bugs, but also ants often bring these into pots. Ants will often be seen running around pots that have mealies, so take a good look around for any ants. If your pots are on the ground/cement or grass, then the ants have easy access to your pots. (We haven’t had mealies for years now since we put our plants on nursery stands.) Good luck.

Thanks all for identifying these little nuisances. I did use Eco Oil, they come and go. Yesterday I started using natural chilly garlic Beat-A-Bug on top of Eco Oil, hope it works. The humidity is very high in my greenhouse, even with windows door open. We had the most humid summer in the West in a long time. At least I know what bugs they are, I will get rid of them soon :-)

Thanks again !

Word to the wise for you, m'dear -- especially with a gritty mix, there is a chance that the mealies will also colonize the roots. Not sure if saturating the media with the eco-oil will take care of that as well. You may need to use a systemic if such a problem exists.

Hi Agartta, hope these bugs, bug off for you soon. I just wanted to mention if you decide to buy the “eco neem” to treat your mealies....this product can also be used as a soil drench to combat any bugs that might be in the soil. I doubt you have any bugs in the actual soil mix, but thought that I’d mention it anyway.

Btw - please note - anyone who might buy the “eco neem” product...this product is NOT approved in Australia to be used on any edible plants such as fruit or veggies. Just thought it might be important to make sure anyone reading this is aware. :)

Whatever this is, is kiling my leaves fast. Shall I bold my plants, pull all the leaves off? Please help. Thanks!

Hi Agartta, hmmm it’s not easy to diagnose with photos. Looks like it could be any number of things.... But, I’m wondering if it’s possible that you may have overdone it with the bug sprays.

You said that you’d sprayed your plants with “eco oil” and had also used “beat a bug” on top of that. That could be the cause of the problem. Maybe the “beat a bug” isn’t suitable for Adeniums....Whatever the cause, If it just makes all the leaves fall off but isn’t otherwise affecting the health of the plant, then you might just have some bald plants for awhile until the leaves grow back. The combination of two different sprays with the heat and humidity has probably been too much.

I agree with Rachel. Agartta i did something similar i used neem than a couple of days later i sprayed with eco ,this was on my seedlings some of the leaves turned black especially the DHA seedlings but i have new growth on all seedlings now .:×)

Oh boy. I thought I was clear, but I just found these on a plant in my room the other day. Luckily, I sprayed it, and others around it and it looks like it worked. This latest spray I found works on everything so far.

Just be sure to repeat treatment unless it's a residual treatment like permethrim.