My husband and I rescued this Dragon Tree after finding it abandoned on the street. We discovered it was infested with mealybugs, and we’ve been treating it for days using neem oil, alcohol, and a dish-soap-and-water mix. We’ve sadly seen leaves gradually fall. Does anyone have any tips or advice to help us get it fully healthy again?
What a cool looking guy! Sorry to hear it’s infected. I think your methods are great and similar to mine but I’ll add what I do for other ideas! When I have infected plants I quarantine them in my bathroom. This helps keep whatever from spreading around my house to other plants. I also can then disinfect the bathroom easy since it’s small and the materials in there are meant to get wet often. If yours will fit in a separate room that you can close off- I’d do that. I also like to use an alcohol, water, and dish soap solution and spray it on the leaves and body of the plant every few days. When it’s time to water the plant, I actually water it with that solution as well. I also go through and soak a cotton ball with nothing but rubbing alcohol and wipe off/dab anything suspicious looking. This can take a while but is worth it. I repeat this every few days as well. You can’t let up with any of your treatments because you want to ensure you’re killing the pest throughout their life cycles and not just the adults etc. Good luck!
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It’s gorgeous 😍 and on my wishlist. I agree that you’re doing all the right things, the key is to keep this up every few days for several weeks until you don’t see any signs of the mealies again. The leaves dropping could be transplant shock so give it some time. It sounds like it’s been through a lot and just needs some tender care. 💚
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