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First time Pest infestation….ughhhhhh. All of my plants got infested… | Pests, diseases and problems | Communauté Planta

Plant Dog Mom

First time Pest infestation….ughhhhhh. All of my plants got infested with mealy bugs, thrips, spider mites, etc. used neem oil, captain jacks insecticide soap, and now Ferti-lome Triple Action Plus Disease & Mite Control Liquid. It’s week three. Just when I spray the shit out of them every 5 days. They keep come back! They are relentless and frustrating. Just look at her. I don’t want to show my orchids, monstera or corn plant and other plants. 😭 I need advice!!! Should I just throw it away. I haven’t been sleeping well because of this shit show. Please what do I do?

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7 commentaires

  1. exitJiraffe

    Honestly if it’s causing you that much stress, I’d toss it and get a new one. There’s nothing wrong with tossing a plant if it’s causing you stress. I’ve given some of mine away for free, letting people know they need rehabbed/have pests. Others I’ve chopped up and let them die before burning (pothos etc since they’re invasive.)

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  2. Phil

    Don’t feel bad about tossing away a plant. If it’s not giving you good vibes then it shouldn’t be around. I have tossed plants because I just didn’t care for them anymore. Currently all my plants are my “favorites”.

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  3. Bb

    Something to keep in mind is the breeding cycle of some of these pests. 5 days can be too long in between unfortunately. Here is what I do when dealing with these a$&holes: because I’m going to have to be doing frequent spraying for an extended period, I tend not to use really strong pesticides etc to avoid harming the plant. For spider mites: I mix a ratio of 1 tbsp liquid castille soap (I use peppermint Dr Bronners) in 4 litres/1 gallon of water. Spray leaves on top and undersides plus stems and crevices every 3 days for 3 weeks. It’s not harsh so you can do the frequent spray without worrying about damaging the plant. In between i wipe the leaves down to physically remove any visible mites or egg bits or webbing. If you’re reusing cloths, make sure you wash them in between wipes on a hot setting to make sure you’re not just saving them for later and transferring back to the leaves the next time round. Thrips: as above but for 6 weeks. It’s a nightmare but it is what it is. I like to make 2 bottles up - 1 with just castille soap + water and another that also contains neem oil. Once a week I do the neem + castille spray. For the rest of the sprays I’ll use the castille-only. For mealies, depending on the extent of the infestation, I will dip a q tip into rubbing alcohol/methylated spirits and kill as many as possible manually. Then spray down with the castille soap every 3 days for 3 weeks. I make a second bottle of spray for these guys that contains rubbing alcohol and water (1 part alcohol to 3 parts water) and spray down 1.5-2 weeks in between. Alcohol is strong so not ideal for every plant. They also can’t be left in the sun afterwards or they’ll burn so do be careful. Mealies hide well in nooks and crevices. Spray the crap out of those! Scale: I try to do as many as I can by squishing with my finger nail and breaking their exoskeletons. The spray for these includes 1 tbsp of liquid castille soap to 1 quart or about a litre of water (stronger than the other). Spray if you can’t fully immerse the plant in a bucket with that mixture. If the plant is small enough I literally fill a large tub or bucket with that stronger castille mix and put the whole plant in for about 20-30 minutes. That’s usually enough to dry out their exoskeletons and kill all the scale. Wipe off all the dead guys from the leaves and stems once it’s all dry. So repeated dunks aren’t always needed but just check the leaves the week after. If they come back, depending on how bad I will either manually squish and wipe the leaves or spray or re-dunk if the soil is dry (if not, I will wait till it’s sufficiently dry again and then re-dunk). If you’re spraying, then spray weekly for 3-4 weeks. Wipe the leaves in between, checking to see if those little b$stands have returned. It’s doable. But it’s a huge effort. So I totally get it you cbf and absolutely no judgement. Good luck with whatever you do! 🌿🌿🌿

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  4. Sunny

    It’s not worth losing anymore sleep over them. Growing plants are supposed to make you happy. No need to keep struggling when they don’t. I just toss them after putting in some effort to save them. I watch a Korean drama to cry over the lost time and money. Then, I start thinking about the next plant on my wishlist!🤣 I recycle the ceramic pots and disinfect in the dishwasher on the short wash cycle.

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  5. Yolanda

    If that plant has that seriousness of infestation I would just toss it. I would not risk one plant destroying my entire plant collection.. that many leaves on that plant would be too tedious to even tackle for me!! I know how you feel I had a fiddle leaf fig that kept giving me anxiety. I tried everything possible to get these plants to thrive so one day I politely grabbed it at the top snatched it out the soil and threw it in the trash. I agree plants are to bring us happiness not grief. Good luck

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  6. Dave_opuntiaface

    Mealy bug eggs are invisible and absolutely nothing kills them. I have spent over a year trying to get rid of them (cleaning, eventually tossing plants), but they are activated with any drastic temperature change/water availability - or just moving them around too often. I also have 0 spiders around to combat them (my apt complex prides itself on “no pests”). My plants are all smallish, but I have been actively treating around 12 plants for mealies. It has soured my mood on plants and a potential plant business. I stopped collecting anything with white wool because it turns into a big bug community center pool. So there is the testimony of a mealies fighter. Here is a pic of a plant I lost to mealies. None of the cleaning schemes work unless you get all the eggs out of the soil. Toss that plant if you don’t love it.

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  7. Dave_opuntiaface

    Also, hey, you can say shit here, now. There was a point a few years ago when I had to ask Planta to not block the words “pot” and “nymph” haha.

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