I am tired of those mealies!! I am using the systemic and It doesn't seem to be working, so all the Hoya's that have them will be going away :( Hopefully I don't forget them.
Sandi
They're going to the basement!
Where are the mealies that aren't hit by the systemic. Sometimes I find mealies on plants that I have treated...and they ARE DEAD. Or...they are out on a rachis where the systemic doesn't go and I have to hit them with alcohol. If you spray a live mealie with alcohol, it turns brown...if it is dead...it just poooofs away.
Sandi
Do you use clips on your hoyas? I find that mealy bugs use these as rooming houses and nurseries. When I treat for them I remove all the clips and drop them into rubbing alcohol, whether I see any live ones or not. Hope your plants will be OK.
Sandi,
Don't give up yet!!!
My carnosa had mealies and they just wouldn't go away (I was using the q-tip and rubbing alcohol method). I finally took the carnosa into the tub and sprayed the heck out of it (foliage only) with a mixture of rubbing alcohol (mostly), some water, and a few drops of dish soap. I let it sit for a few hours and then sprayed all the foliage with water to get the alcohol off. This did the job. You might have to do this a few times. I don't know how infested your hoyas are, but it's worth a try!
Good luck :-)
Gabi
Thanks everyone for the advice. They aren't that bad so I will try your remedies. I have done the qtip thing, I will now try the alcohol spray. I won't get rid of them, they will go down to the basement to be safe so they don't get on my other plants.
Sandi
I did the same as Gabi for some of my bigger plants ( not necessarily hoyas ) that always had a small amount of spider mites....if it can get rid of them, it can get rid of mealy bugs. Having it in the shower you don't have to worry about making a mess and can concentrate on hitting the whole plant. Sometimes just the spray of water alone gets rid of the bugs. It helps to have a hand held shower wand, $20 at any walmart type store, that way it is alot easier to get the undersides of the plants too with the water stream. The plants don't seem to mind it, either. I think it is good practice to do this to all plants every month or so, whether they have bugs or not - keeps any bugs that may be lurking around from settling, gets rid of dust on leaves etc. Problem is, I don't have the time to bath my plants on a regular basis.
With any of the insects, it is very important to do the tub thing again in a few weeks, even do it a third time to be sure. After the plants dry off a thorough spraying of insecticidal soap provides even more insurance that the problem will go away.
Boy, I wish that I had found this forum before I threw out my seven-year-old carnosa rubra that was covered with aphids. I'd give anything to have that plant back. I was just too paranoid about speading insects to the rest of my plants to take the chance. I now have a small three-season greenhouse that I bought specifically to get some of my reluctant Hoyas to bloom. I treat everything with BATS as I move plants in there, and I will use the advice gathered here to make sure that I don't bring pests back into the house in the fall. If I see a few, I'm not going to panic; I will use the spray in the shower method and isolate the plants to the best of my ability.
Oh that is too bad, I think aphids are the easiest to get rid of. The only time I have thrown out a plant was when it was so far gone infested with scale, even systemics didn't work. They were hanging in a friends restaurant and the waitress who had been taking care of them quit so he asked me to come in and see what I could do. Evidentally she had been using all these soft core natural remedies and the scale just got worse and worse. I use the natural remedies myself, but when they aren't working, especially on something like scale, you need to bring out the heavy duty artillery!
Anyway, by the time I came along it was too late, 3 or 4 spider plants and about 5 Boston Ferns were so loaded with scale that you could see it from the other room. It was kind of disgusting to know that people were eating right below where these plants were hanging. They had to go. And even then, I felt guilty throwing them away.
But aphids? They are a walk in the park compared to scale. You just don't want them or any bug to get the upper hand.