Garden Pests and Diseases: Hot Pepper Wax? Indoor plants (citrus etc) under seige. HELP, 1 by petitchouchou

petitchouchou wrote:
Anyone have any luck with this stuff on any of the following pests?

-armored scale
-mealybugs
-whitefly (possibly?)
-spider mites

I have indoor plants that have all of the above (scale on my citrus, orchids...mealybugs on my umbrella tree (maybe?), citrus) and i don't know how to rid them in a low-toxicity way. These plants are in my bedroom so i don't want to put nasty stuff on them. On the other hand, the citrus plants are both 4 feet high and to wipe down both sides of each leaf/branch and manually remove every insect takes a full day...and i've already been through that twice. It's wintertime here in NY so i can't take them outside to spray them...or can i?

***Would a fruiting citrus go into irreparable shock if i put it outside in 35-degree weather for a half an hour while i sprayed?***

Any advice? I tried Organocide, which i had high hopes for, but the resulting smell is so amazingly pungent (the inert base is fish oil) that my entire apartment smelled like a dirty sushi restaurant in August....and lingered for a week. My garden guy said to try hot pepper wax, but i've been looking online and it only seems to be good at deterring bigger critters.

I was also looking into biocontrols; getting bugs in that will eat the scale and mealybugs, but it's not cheap...

i've also attached a photo: i've found white fuzzy bits on the stems and leaves of my umbrella tree plant can't tell if this is whitefly or mealybugs. I will see a single clump (like a small, fuzzy grain of rice) at the base of a branch, or on the top of a leaf, or on the bottom of a leaf. Never clusters, and each one seemingly placed rather strategically, although again, not discriminating for tops of bottoms of leaves.

help!