Hot Pepper Wax? Indoor plants (citrus etc) under seige. HELP

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!

Also, here are some of the leaves on the plant. Looks like spider mites to me, although I don't see any....

I've never used hot pepper wax so can't speak to its efficacy, but I can answer a couple of your questions.

I think your citrus would be OK at 35 for a short time while you treat it. We can grow citrus outdoors here, and it regularly gets that cold (or even a bit colder) at night. Since your tree is used to warm temperatures though I would try to minimize its time outside in the cold.

Your first picture looks like mealy bugs, and your last picture does look like spider mite damage--did you check the undersides of the leaves? That's where they live. They'll look like little teeny brownish or reddish dots.

As far as treatment--are your plants small enough that you can bring them over to the sink and give them a good shower? I've often found that just as effective as the chemicals. Sometimes even more effective. I tend to get mealies, scale, aphids, etc in my greenhouse over the winter and I've tried sprays, but what ends up usually keeping things under control the best is going out once a week and blasting things with a jet from my hose. Can't do that in the house obviously, but giving them a shower in the sink could accomplish the same thing. I've used the hose treatment for spider mites too.

The other thing you can do with mealybugs is take a q-tip dipped in alcohol and use that to wipe them off the plant.

hi ecrane3,

the umbrella tree is too big to fit in a shower, unfortunately, as is the bigger of the two citrus plants. The kaffir lime could fit in the shower; I'll hose it down.

I noticed some tiny webbing on the umbrella tree, so it looks like there's definitely a mite party happening. I sprayed the whole thing down with hot pepper wax unti it was dripping and plan to repeat every 4 days or so for a few weeks and see what happens...also removed the mealybug fuzzies with a q-tip as i went. fingers crossed.

i also just noticed that the underside of some of my citrus leaves has a slightly sandpapery texture, with a reddish cast. almost like the leaves are beginning to rust. what is this?

Did you get the underside of the leaves with the pepper wax? That's where the mites live so if you only sprayed the top of the leaves you won't kill most of them.

I can't really tell what's going on with your leaf--is the stuff on the underside sticky at all? It reminds me of sooty mold that grows where aphids, mealies, scale, etc have secreted honeydew but that would be more black/brown vs red.

I'd be careful also with over-applying the pepper wax--make sure you read the directions on how often you're supposed to apply it. I've never used it, but just from the name (wax) it sounds like it could clog up the pores in the plant's leaves so you may not be supposed to apply it as frequently as you're suggesting.

i got all of the tops and undersides of everything, along with the branches and trunk. The "wax" seems very, very diluted to me -- now that it's dry, I see and feel nothing and when I scrape the leaves with my fingernails, i detect no residue. But then again, I'm not a plant...Application instructions say to coat the plant once every 3-7 days for several weeks. We'll see how it goes.

My other lime had sooty mold that looked black, like dirt, but it wiped off easily. This stuff does not feel sticky, and it doesn't really seem to wipe off much, if at all. But it's definitely making the leaves unhappy -- when I went to pull one to test just now, it was already about to come off...

Hello petitchouchou:

As Technical Mgr for Hot Pepper Wax (HPW), I should be able to answer your questions about its use. First let me say that the feedback you’ve received already seems sound. Let’s start with whether or not HPW will control the insects you asked about.

In general, HPW works well on soft-bodied insects or the stage of an insect that is soft (like the larval stage of many insects). Additionally, HPW is a contact material, so the pest needs to come in contact with the product to work.

Let’s start with spider mites & whiteflies as these 2 pests are on our label & have some formal research behind them. Hot Pepper Wax natural Insect Repellent is highly effective on both of these insects if applied as you seem to be doing (to all above-ground plant surfaces) once a week for at least 5 weeks. This is the amount of time it takes to break the life cycle of these insects. Since you are starting after insect populations have increased to where they are doing significant damage, you may need to apply more frequently to start, but you should get control with just weekly applications as long as you don’t stop too soon.

Research we did at Penn State University on whiteflies on poinsettias (you can find a summary at http://www.hotpepperwax.com/Products/Ag-Technical.html) showed that Hot Pepper Wax actually killed the larval stage of this insect, but not the adults or eggs. The key was getting them where they live, on the undersides of leaves (as ecrane3 stated).

Now for Armored Scale & Mealybugs… First I agree from the your photo that your umbrella tree has mealybugs. While we have not done formal tests on either of these pests, here’s what we would expect. HPW would not work well on armored scale unless it’s in the nymph (crawler) stage of its life cycle, as the soft stages of the insect are protected under the scale at other times. Now for mealybugs…

Not having done all the research to be 100% sure, HPW should work on mealybugs when they are very small before they’ve had time to grow an extensive “fuzzy coat”. Once they have that protection, HPW can’t get to the insect underneath. I know HPW alone will reduce the population, but cannot guarantee you’ll get 100% control. Treating individual mealybugs with alcohol does work, but my personal experience (especially on large plants) is that it’s hard to see & treat every one of them and it’s very time consuming. You might try using alcohol on the larger individuals & spraying w/ HPW to get the ones you might otherwise miss.

When we target specific life cycle stages outdoors, it’s easier as temperatures often predict emergence of crawlers, nymphs, etc. Indoors, the temperature is generally conducive to these stages happening at almost any time. For that reason, it’s important to apply our product (or have it already in place) when the pests are there in a susceptible form.

You may want to do a combination of things. If you use a strong water spray (this does work on spider mites if you do it often enough to knock them off the plant as they hatch out), be sure to let the plant dry before applying Hot Pepper Wax (so it will adhere properly). Normal rain won’t wash HPW off, but warm water or really strong sprays will either wash it off or reduce its effectiveness.

Don’t worry about HPW burning your plants as long as you don’t apply it more often than the label directs or (if you have a concentrate) mix it at higher rate than what’s on the label. The few plants that are sensitive to HPW & are listed on the label. As with any other material, be sure your plant is not thirsty before spraying and avoid excessively high temperatures. Both of these things should be easy to control in your home.

Finally, I want to address how you’dll know that Hot Pepper Wax is working. With the insects you are having problems with, the first thing I think you’ll see is a return of a healthy green color (whatever’s normal for the species) to the leaves. I’ve used HPW numerous times to clean up spider mites on Christmas cactus. When I see them start to look better, I know I’m well on my way to control.

Please keep us posted on how things go.

you can try some dr. bronner's soap. i swear by it for everything! get the peppermint and your house will smell good too! when you're done, you can take a shower with it. it's great stuff.