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How to deal with mealybugs on indoor plants? How to properly deal with mealybugs on houseplants White fluff on houseplants

With improper care, potted flowers can "get sick". A white coating may appear on the leaves of indoor plants or mold on the surface of the earth. Such a manifestation requires immediate action. The cause of diseases of indoor flowers and white plaque are aphids, mites, mold. These pests not only spoil the appearance of plants, but can also destroy it.

Most often, microscopic fungi become the cause of the appearance of white plaque on the leaves of indoor plants - powdery mildew mycelium. This disease very quickly covers the entire plant and destroys it.

White bloom on indoor flowers. A photo

Most often, powdery mildew is affected by:

It is possible and necessary to fight powdery mildew, but first of all, you should be more careful about the regimen for caring for a houseplant. If powdery mildew "tightens" your flower, pay attention to:

watering frequency;
stagnation of water in the pan of the pot;
change in air temperature in the room.

In order to save the plant from powdery mildew, it is imperative to treat its leaves with a fungicide, but first of all, remove the damaged leaves. The fungicide solution should be applied to the leaves of the indoor flower from a spray bottle every 10 days. The minimum amount of processing is 3-5 times.

White cotton wool on the leaves: how to deal with mealybugs

If you notice the appearance of a white coating on indoor flowers, like cotton wool, then your indoor pet has become a victim mealybug. This is a very small sucking insect, which is one of the relatives of aphids. It spins a web and pulls the leaves of a houseplant with it.

Some plants are not susceptible to this disease at all, and a number of indoor flowers, such as Kalanchoe, for example, are very sensitive to mealybugs and can die very quickly.

On indoor flowers, white bloom, like cotton wool. A photo

How to get rid of white bloom on indoor flowers:

alcohol(96%) moisten a cotton pad or Q-tip and gently remove white plaque and adult insects from each leaf, wetting the cotton as often as possible;
spray the leaves and stem of the plant with a spray bottle insecticide solution;
if there are other flowers next to the diseased plant, they should also be processed, since white, like cotton wool, plaque on indoor flowers spreads very quickly;
wipe soaked in insecticide rag window frame and window sill on which stood the pot.

The treatment will have to be repeated 2-3 times with an interval of 5-7 days. The fact is that eggs can remain on the leaves of the plant, as well as on the windowsill, which are not afraid of insecticide poisons.

White plaque on the ground of a houseplant

Fears for the condition of a houseplant can cause a white coating on the ground in indoor flowers, or simply - mold. This often happens even with the most careful care of the plant. There can be several reasons for the appearance of white plaque:

high salt content in irrigation water;
too big pot;
excessive feeding;
too dry indoors;
excessive watering.

If the ground in indoor flowers is covered with white bloom, first of all, the top, infected layer should be removed from the soil, and fresh should be poured in its place. To prevent contamination of the soil with mold, you should ventilate the room and water the plant, taking into account its moisture needs.

How to remove white bloom from flowers - video

When growing flowers at home, flower growers often face some difficulties, the most common of which is white bloom on the flowers themselves and in the pot. In order to properly approach treatment, you need to understand the causes of plaque, which may be several.

White bloom on indoor flowers: causes
How to treat white bloom on houseplants
Prevention of white plaque on indoor flowers

White bloom on indoor flowers: causes

The most common cause of white plaque on the body of a plant and its leaves is a lesion:

powdery and downy mildew
mealybugs
moldy
gray mold

Therefore, it is necessary to understand the characteristics of each disease in order to choose the right drugs for treatment.

powdery mildew

The leaves of indoor flowers are rapidly covered with white bloom due to damage by mycelium - microscopic fungi. The disease is dangerous by the speed of spread, and if urgent measures are not taken, the plants will soon die.

The disease is caused by fungi "Sphaerothecarannosa", the genus of which has many varieties. Therefore, any plant can become infected with powdery mildew.

A favorable environment for the development of this type of fungus is an increased level of humidity in the room, as well as sharp jumps in temperature.

Fungal spores can easily migrate from one plant to another by watering, on the legs of insects and with air currents, so the disease is contagious. The infected plant is isolated and preventive treatments of all flowers are carried out.

The development of powdery mildew can be caused by excessive fertilization with nitrogen fertilizers and calcium deficiency, combined with high temperature and humidity in the room.

downy mildew

This is a disease related to powdery mildew, so the causes of their occurrence are identical, and the manifestations have a significant difference. When powdery mildew is affected, a white fluffy coating formed by the mycelium spreads along the outside of the leaf plate.

With downy mildew, the plaque is concentrated on the inside of the leaves, and their surface is covered with yellowish spots with a whitish bloom that has a purple hue.

Mealybugs

Mold

The formation of mold spots on the leaves is the result of damage by fungi - botrytis and mycelium. Mold has the appearance of fibrous or fleecy substances covered with dust.

The disease is the result of frequent spraying of flowers, resulting in an excess of moisture, which is a favorable environment for the development of fungi.

Mold must be fought, otherwise the process of decay will begin and the plant will die.

Gray rot

Fragmented spots of white bloom with a gray tinge are initially concentrated on stems and petioles. But the disease quickly spreads throughout the plant. Therefore, you need to be extremely careful so that gray rot does not destroy all home greens, because there is no cure for this disease.

All these diseases are contagious and provoked by improper care, and in particular, increased levels of humidity and temperature.

How to treat white bloom on houseplants

When the causes of white bloom on indoor flowers are established, you can proceed to methods for eliminating them. These activities are similar to each other, but may have distinctive features, which should not be neglected.

Powdery mildew treatment

When identifying the first signs of the disease, it is necessary to normalize the temperature and humidity of the air in the room, as well as eliminate the causes of sharp temperature fluctuations. To provide first aid for minor damage to flowers, folk remedies are relevant:

manganese solution - 2 grams of potassium permanganate is dissolved in 10 liters of water
soap solution with the addition of soda ash. To prepare it, mix 45-50 grams of soda and soap, after which it is diluted with 10 liters of water
garlic infusion for 20 grams of chopped garlic per 1 liter of water. Insist day

Leaves and stems of plants are washed with these solutions, and spraying is also carried out. Such methods are applicable at the initial stage of the development of the disease. In severe forms of the disease, fungicidal preparations are applicable. Moreover, with powdery mildew, you need to use sulfur-containing products, and with false - copper-containing ones.

Fight against mealybugs

Mold removal

The fight against mold consists in the removal of the affected parts of indoor flowers and preventive antifungal treatments. It is also important to restore the microclimate and create suitable conditions for the plants.

When treating white plaque, it is necessary to carry out complex measures and regularly inspect healthy flowers so as not to miss the moment and start treatment in a timely manner. But treating diseases is much more difficult than preventing their development. Therefore, systemic preventive measures should be taken.

Prevention of white plaque on indoor flowers

Prevention of diseases consists of simple rules:

regular inspections of flowers for pests
removal of dust and dirt from sheet plates
sanitary scraps
optimal conditions for each specific plant

If these conditions are met, then indoor flowers will have strong immunity against fungal diseases and pests that cause white bloom on leaves and stems.

Only with proper care and proper maintenance conditions, indoor flowers will be beneficial and give joy, and will not cause waste and headaches. Therefore, before bringing a plant into the house, you need to study well its preferences for humidity, temperature and nutrition.

Unfortunately, houseplants are also capable of "sick". All plants, if improperly maintained, are susceptible to various pests and diseases. One of the most common ailments is a white coating that affects leaves, flowers and even the soil.

sick leaves

Powdery mildew - what is it?

White plaque is a fungal disease called powdery mildew. Powdery mildew on houseplants is a coating of fungal spores. After the defeat, soon the plant becomes lethargic, the leaves dry, and the flower buds fall off. This happens due to the fact that the fungus sucks out all the useful and vital substances from the plant.

The main cause of the disease is moist air, improper temperature, drafts and soil overflow.

This type of illness is contagious and can easily be confused with another illness. If white plaque is detected, treatment should be started immediately. With improper or untimely treatment, unfortunately, the plant dies.

fungus on leaves

Cause of Powdery Mildew

If it is cool outside, about 12 - 15 degrees, the rainy season, high humidity. Outdoor conditions do not affect indoor plants as much as plants located on the balcony. Therefore, balcony plants in non-flying weather should be removed to a warmer place.
If the soil is oversaturated with nitrogen
Abundant vegetation and little space in the pot
Improper care, not timely watering. If the plant is often watered and the earth ball does not have time to dry out, or vice versa, the earth constantly dries up, and then it is watered abundantly

Since this disease is portable, it is very easy to infect other plants:

If you touched a diseased plant, then touched a healthy one
If mealy fungi got into the irrigation water
Even through the air, spores can infect neighboring plants.
Avoid contact with fungus

We create the right care

To get rid of white plaque, it is necessary to provide comprehensive care for a diseased plant. First you need to understand the agricultural technology of cultivation:

Water the plant only when the topsoil begins to dry out.
During the treatment of the plant, it is impossible to spray it (with the exception of medicinal purposes). This also applies to healthy plants in order to prevent
The flower needs to increase the sunny day, it is advisable to move the flower to a dry and warm place, with a little direct sunlight
Withered and dry leaves and buds must be cut off
With this disease, you can not use any fertilizers and dressings.
Keep the plant out of direct sunlight

Provide the plant with proper care, otherwise powdery mildew will become your regular visitor. Now let's move on to the treatment of the disease.

Treatment of white plaque

To permanently get rid of white plaque, it is necessary to provide the plant with the correct treatment:

If powdery mildew has appeared on bushy flowers, such as domestic roses, various types of chrysanthemums, and petunias, you need to prune the plant abundantly, ridding it of diseased leaves and flowers. The more leaves and twigs you remove, the more likely your plant will be to recover.
It is advisable to arrange a flower transplant, it is necessary to transplant the plant into fresh soil
In specialized flower shops, various additives are sold that fight fungi. The plant must be sprayed abundantly and wipe each leaf
We leave only healthy leaves and stems

Treatment with chemicals

It is easiest to cure a home plant with the help of chemicals. They actively stop the growth of fungi, adversely affecting it. And the plant is helped in the form of protection and treatment.

There are a lot of chemicals today, some of them: Topaz, Previkur, Fundazol and many others.

Chemicals

Folk remedies against powdery mildew

Please note that folk remedies are not able to cure the advanced stage of the disease. Such measures are carried out as a prophylaxis or for the treatment of the initial stages of the disease:

For one liter of hot boiled water, one tablespoon of baking soda and one teaspoon of liquid soap are taken. without additives. The plant must be sprayed once a day for three days. Cool water before use
Soda + soap
It is necessary to add a few crystals of potassium permanganate per liter of water, as a result, a barely noticeable pink tint should be obtained. The plant must be sprayed once a day with an interval of three days
Potassium permanganate solution
For one liter of hot water, you need to take half a teaspoon of mustard powder. After cooling, the plant can be sprayed and watered with the resulting solution.
This method is the most effective for the treatment of fungal infections on indoor plants. Take five grams of copper sulfate in a glass of water. In a separate container, dissolve a small bar of soap. After cooking, it is necessary to pour the soap mass into copper sulfate. It is necessary to pour in a thin stream with constant stirring
Soap + blue vitriol
Three cloves of garlic must be chopped and poured with hot water, about one liter. After a day of infusion, it is necessary to remove the remnants of garlic, and water the flower with the resulting garlic water.

With the right approach to treatment, as well as timely action, it is possible to defeat powdery mildew and cure your favorite plant.

Pay attention to the video

Powdery mildew - what is it?

The main cause of the disease is moist air, improper temperature, drafts and soil overflow.

Cause of Powdery Mildew

If it is cool outside, about 12 - 15 degrees, the rainy season, high humidity. Outdoor conditions do not affect indoor plants as much as plants located on the balcony. Therefore, balcony plants in non-flying weather should be removed to a warmer place.
If the soil is oversaturated with nitrogen
Abundant vegetation and little space in the pot
Improper care, not timely watering. If the plant is often watered and the earth ball does not have time to dry out, or vice versa, the earth constantly dries up, and then it is watered abundantly

Since this disease is portable, it is very easy to infect other plants:

We create the right care

To get rid of white plaque, it is necessary to provide comprehensive care for a diseased plant. First you need to understand the agricultural technology of cultivation:

Provide the plant with proper care, otherwise powdery mildew will become your regular visitor. Now let's move on to the treatment of the disease.

Treatment of white plaque

To permanently get rid of white plaque, it is necessary to provide the plant with the correct treatment:

Treatment with chemicals

It is easiest to cure a home plant with the help of chemicals. They actively stop the growth of fungi, adversely affecting it. And the plant is helped in the form of protection and treatment.

There are a lot of chemicals today, some of them: Topaz, Previkur, Fundazol and many others.

Folk remedies against powdery mildew

Please note that folk remedies are not able to cure the advanced stage of the disease. Such measures are carried out as a prophylaxis or for the treatment of the initial stages of the disease:

With the right approach to treatment, as well as timely action, it is possible to defeat powdery mildew and cure your favorite plant.

Pay attention to the video

It is noticeable even without the use of optical means: an adult reaches 5 mm in length, the segmented body is covered with a characteristic wax coating. However, on cacti, where, in addition to thorns, white fluffy hairs also grow, it can be difficult to recognize a worm.
Characterized by many types.
He likes to live on the greenery of young shoots, in the axils of foliage, on the root site, especially on houseplants.
The bristly oval body of the insect can have a different color: light green, white (mealy), pink. From above - a plaque similar to a cotton shell.
Females are mobile, round, without wings, they are distinguished by high egg production (up to 600 eggs), which allows up to 6 generations of insects per year.
Resistance to external conditions is manifested in the water resistance of the egg shell. Therefore, it is important to know how to deal not only with adult insects, but also with unborn worms.
Nymphs develop within a week and a half. Males have obvious differences: wings, lack of mouth organs (they do not live long and do not eat). In addition to the harm caused by sucking the life-giving juices from the plant, the worms at the bite site secrete harmful enzymes that disrupt the growth process.

Characteristic signs of damage to a plant by a worm

Signs that flowers are sick are:

Growth retardation. The insect population absorbs the greenery, and the plant itself, as if covered with white snow.
Rapid fall of leaves, buds, flowers. For example, the mealybug on dracaena becomes noticeable due to the sticky substance on the leaves, which causes them to turn yellow. Over time, the plant loses them.
Escape variation. Deformation of buds, flowers on an orchid is a signal that they should be cut and immediately destroyed.
A money tree infected with a mealybug resembles a Christmas tree, in which characteristic white fluffy lumps appear in the places where branches grow, in the axils of green leaves. With further damage, fungal formations similar to soot develop from them.

Preventive actions

In order not to raise the question “How to cure a plant?”, You need to take all measures to prevent infection. Constant monitoring of the green tent is necessary. Careful examination of the lower, hidden from the sun, side of the leaves. Timely removal of drying and dried parts of the plant. Creation of a damp curtain by constant fine spraying. Treatment of the crown with a concentrated soapy solution (important in the early stages of insect detection). Periodic application of a finely dispersed solution of tobacco, garlic to the plant once a week for a month.

Preventive treatment of flowers with soapy water

Important! Before you bring a new flower into your greenhouse or put it on a windowsill, carefully examine the condition of its leaves and stems. It’s better to keep the “newbie” in quarantine for a while.

Effective methods of struggle

If we talk about a “home first aid kit”, then literally in every house or apartment you can find components from which a remedy for a mealybug is easily prepared. If single insects or cotton-like cocoons (egg laying) are found, it is necessary to carefully wipe the affected area with a swab moistened with vodka. Spraying the leaves with a soap or oil spray leads to the destruction of not only a single insect, but the entire colony. The appearance in the places of leaf growth, near the petiole, white, fluffy, shaggy wet neoplasms on ficus benjamin requires treatment with soap and alcohol tincture.

On a note. Do not neglect cleaning the leaves of the plant by hand. In combination with a subsequent warm shower, which is used to wash off the remaining insects, almost 80% of the destruction of the pest is achieved. Many are interested in the question of whether a worm is dangerous for a person: no, it is not dangerous. But when working with chemicals belonging to different hazard classes, you need to take precautions: work with rubber gloves, protecting the respiratory system.

Insecticides to help the grower

Pest control, especially at an advanced stage of plant damage, will be most successful with the use of combined chemicals that kill not only adult insects, but also laying eggs and larvae. These are the so-called insecticides (systemic). Drugs are able to penetrate into the plant. Moving through the system of channels, they reach its top, roots. Therefore, wherever the worm is, it will begin to feed on poisoned juice, then it will die.

Mealybug in the roots can only be destroyed by chemicals

White, fluffy, shaggy, wet neoplasms on ficus benjamin are sprayed with Mosplan. You can use Aktelik, characterized by intestinal contact action. Each soluble mixture must be prepared following the instructions included in the instructions. On dracaena, continue treatment at intervals of 4 days until the worm is completely destroyed.

For the processing of decorative flower greens, you can alternately use Fazalon and Fitoverm from the mealybug. The last preparation of the biological series of IV generation insecticides. They can cure orchid diseases caused not only by the mealybug, but also by aphids, as well as other harmful organisms.

A number of chemical reagents are supplemented by Mospilan, Confidor-maxi, Ponche. They are diluted simply: 1 g of the substance per 1000 ml of water. Plants are watered with these solutions not too abundantly. To prevent the pest from getting used to one poison, watering is repeated after 7 days, but already with Spirotetramate or Aplaud (from a series of new drugs). By the time of exposure to the worm, various chemical preparations differ. But, in the end, the dried bodies of the killed insects are necessarily found on the ground in a flower pot.

Mealybugs are sucking insects with an oval body. It is covered with a white coating with peculiar bristles on the sides. Since the body is pink or white with transverse stripes on the back, this insect can be seen with the naked eye. Depending on the variety its dimensions range from 3 to 7 mm. This pest produces white sticky mucus, which gives the impression that the plant has been sprinkled with flour or cotton balls on top. It is under them that a mealybug or a clutch of its eggs is found.

This mucus interferes with gas exchange in flowers. The insect prefers to settle on young shoots, in the axils of the leaves or inside them when they have not yet opened, as well as in buds. These individuals can appear right on the windowsill, in flower containers and even in the soil.

In total, about 1600 varieties of this insect are known. The following types of worms are considered the most dangerous for indoor plants:

bristly;
seaside;
grape;
citrus.

Favorable conditions for reproduction

When fertilizing the soil with indoor plants, special care must be taken. In no case do not feed in large quantities, as this creates ideal conditions for the reproduction of a mealybug. Also, this pest settles on flowers, which are very often fed with fertilizers containing nitrogen.

A favorable temperature for insect reproduction is +27 degrees or slightly lower. The larvae from the laid eggs appear quickly enough. Healthy plants have excellent immunity and produce protective substances that repel the worm. However, in winter there is a violation of metabolic processes. As the daylight hours become shorter, the flowers begin to lack lighting, and the air in the apartment becomes too dry due to the functioning of the central heating batteries. Plants become weak, which increases the risk of pests.

Why is a mealybug dangerous?

To feed, the pest needs the juice of a houseplant, which causes significant damage to the flower. In addition, in the course of life it insect secretes nectar, which has a special composition that promotes the reproduction of mold fungi and attracts other insects. Without taking timely measures, the flower dies.

There is a species of mealybug whose females do not need males for reproduction. Separate subspecies produce offspring without laying eggs. In this case, larvae, ready for independent life, viviparous individuals reproduce.

Basically, this pest appears on such a beautiful flower as an orchid, which adorns the windowsills of many apartments and offices. In addition, the insect infects citrus fruits, philodendrons, gerberas, fuchsias, asparagus, monstera, grapes, cacti, amaryllis, oleanders, palm trees, anthurium, hibiscus.

poison secreted by worms leads to a weakening of the growth of the orchid, discoloration and leaf drop. In flowering plants, buds and already blooming flowers begin to suffer. Active reproduction of these insects often leads to the deformation of young shoots in orchids. In violets, the root system is damaged.

Mealybug: how to fight?

On indoor plants, and especially on orchids, this pest is found quite often. Contribute to their appearance such favorable factors for them, such as:

poor care;
use of contaminated soil;
rise or fall in temperature.

It is very difficult to deal with this pest. The very first thing to do is isolate the affected flower from other plants to prevent their infection. It is best to examine the flowers that were next to the diseased specimen. If the peduncle or bud is damaged, they should be cut off.

To destroy an insect that infects indoor flowers, such as an orchid, it is not necessary to resort to the use of chemicals. There are a large number of folk ways with which you can permanently get rid of this pest.

The most common method is application of soap-alcohol solution. To prepare it, you should 1 tsp. grated laundry soap dissolve in hot water. Then the volume of liquid is brought to 1 liter, after which 1 tbsp is added. l. alcohol and 2 tbsp. l. vodka. Before spraying, the substrate is closed in a pot, and the next day after the procedure, it is washed with warm water. For the best effect, spraying is recommended every 3 to 4 days.

Well proven garlic tincture. To prepare it, take 4 - 5 cloves of garlic and chop. After that, bring half a liter of water to a boil, to which garlic is added. The resulting solution should wipe the affected leaves.

You can also make an olive emulsion. To do this, a few tablespoons of olive oil are stirred in water and applied to the orchid with a cotton pad.

Chemical methods

There are a large number of various chemicals, the action of which is that after its application, the protective substance penetrates into the juice of the plant. Insects suck it out and poison it.

All chemicals are divided into the following types:

Systemic - get into the juice of indoor flowers, making them poisonous to the worm. These include various sprays, for example, Rogor and Phosphamide. The most effective insecticides are malathion and parathion.
Intestinal - enter the body of the pest through the mouth. These drugs include "Aktellik", "Aktara", "Nurell-D".
Contact - enter the body of the worm through the skin. The most common drug in this group is "Spruzit - aeschadlingsfrei". During treatment with this agent, the plant should not be left in the sun. They do not need to re-treat the flowers.

Biological methods

In nature, there are insects that feed on mealybugs. These include riders, larvae of cryptolemus, marmalade fly, common goldhead.

If a mealybug appears on an orchid or other indoor flowers, do not be upset. It is best to remember if new plants have recently appeared in the apartment? They can be the source of the disease. Therefore, after purchase, the flowers must be carefully examined.

Even if nothing is found, this does not yet indicate the absence of a pest. Larvae can hide in the soil or packaging container.

mealybug invasion

If suddenly you find white lumps on your houseplants that resemble lumps of cotton wool, then this means that they were attacked by a mealybug.

Mealybugs, also called hairy lice, are sucking insects that are perfectly visible to the naked eye. ( Pseudococcidae) is a close relative of scale insects and false scale insects.

In room conditions, a worm can start up along with a plant bought in a store, with a bouquet or seedlings from greenhouses. Worms can get on houseplants along with garden soil. The optimal conditions for the development of worms are considered to be room temperature and high humidity.

There are several types of worms on indoor plants. The most dangerous are considered amaryllis, grape, seaside, cactus, bristly. Almost all of them look the same - white, furry, with many legs. The body of the female is elongated, oval-rounded, about 3.5 mm long, grayish, pinkish or orange. The worms have very well developed legs, so they can easily move from plant to plant.

Worms are very mobile and able to move at almost any age. They have a soft body, devoid of wings, covered on top with a powdery wax coating of white color, sometimes with wax plates along the edge. It is this wax coating that reliably protects the worms and their larvae from the effects of any poisons and makes them immune.

The larvae turn into an adult insect in 1-1.5 months. Both larvae and adult insects harm plants.

In addition to the fact that the worms suck the juice from plants, they leave behind a sweet sticky secretion - honeydew, on which then a sooty fungus quickly adheres - a mold that looks like soot.

By the nature of the lesion, leaf and root scales are distinguished

grape mealybug. The body of the female is about 3.5 mm, broadly oval, pink or yellowish, covered with a white powdery coating. This type of mealybug prefers amaryllis, aralia, gardenia, jasmine, figs, cacti, coffee tree, ferns, hedera (ivy), grapes.

Palm mealybug- a very dangerous quarantine pest, but very rare. The body of an adult female is up to 2.5 mm long, covered with a wax shield in the form of cone-shaped cream-colored spikes. It feeds on the juice of indoor plants, located on the underside of the leaf. Damages palms, bananas, aroids, orchids, avocados and other subtropical plants.

Bristly mealybug rather large and easily noticeable insect on the plant. It hides on the underside of the leaves, climbs under the bark of citrus fruits, under the scales of bulbs. Damages asparagus, begonia, dracaena, lemon, clivia, coleus, dracaena, oleander, palm, pandanus, primrose, cycad, ficus, fuchsia, dieffenbachia.

seaside mealybug- the most common of all types. The female is elongated-oval, 3-4 mm long, 2-2.5 mm wide, grayish-pink in color. Egg sacs covered with waxy spiderwebs look fluffy and out of shape. Often egg bags are located in a hard-to-reach place - in the axils of the leaves, and in plants such as nolina or dracaena, it can be problematic to get them. Prefers asparagus, cacti, succulents, including nolina (bokarney); camellia, coleus, dieffenbachia, krinum, pelargonium, oleander, laurel, cordilina, cypress, rhododendron, citrus.

Is there some more citrus mealybug, which settles not only on the leaves, but also affects the root system. It is found not only on citrus, Mediterranean (oleander, laurel, myrtle), but also on other indoor plants.

Root mealybug, almost the same as cactus root worm, only slightly larger. Both species prefer cacti and succulents, and are found on plants of the Bromeliad and Euphorbia families. For these plants, whose root system is very small, root mealybugs are very dangerous. Pests settle on the roots or near the root neck, feed on the juice.

Signs of damage to plants by mealybugs

The egg-laying of the mealybug, the larvae and the pest itself look like lumps of small wax threads or lumps that look like fluff or cotton wool.

Often the surfaces of the plant where the worms live become sticky to the touch due to the pest's honey secretions.

The affected plant lags behind in growth, they have an unhealthy appearance, the stem is often bent, becomes deformed, sometimes dries out.

The leaves become smaller in size, lose color or turn yellow without time, fall off prematurely. And if they do not die off, then traces remain on them - gnawed areas, which then dry out, turn brown, the decorative effect of the leaves is greatly reduced.

A plant weakened by a mealybug often rots, being affected by bacterial rot and fungal diseases.

Root bug colonies can be detected by the characteristic white felt in the soil and on the inner walls of the pot. If your cactus, succulent or spurge is sick and not growing for some reason, remove it from the pot and carefully inspect the earthen ball. The root mealybug can be seen by the white, cobwebbed coating on the roots.

Measures to combat the worm

Do not flatter yourself if there are few worms, sometimes the fight against them takes a very long time, and you will have to deal with it with complex measures.

If white lumps are found, wipe or wash the plant in a soap-alcohol solution (dissolve one teaspoon of finely chopped laundry soap in 1 liter of hot water, add 2 tablespoons of vodka), you can use a dishwashing liquid solution. Rubbing the leaves with alcohol or vodka also helps. All these improvised means weaken the wax coating of the worms, which makes them more vulnerable to pesticides. Before processing, all visible pests must be removed with a cotton swab or toothbrush. The cotton swab must be changed, and the brush thoroughly rinsed and treated with alcohol or detergent so as not to transfer the worm to other parts or neighboring plants.

After the "mechanical" processing, it is imperative to proceed to the "chemical" one. To do this, you can use insecticides: golden spark, fitoverm, actellik, phosphamide, intavir, fufan, metaphos, aktara, karbofos, mospilan. In addition to spraying with the same solution, you need to shed the earth in a pot. Such treatments will have to be repeated more than once, it is best to change the drug each time. It is assumed that the worm very quickly gets used to one drug and develops immunity. It should also be noted that it is difficult to deal with a mealybug because of its wax coating. If you simply, having found a worm on a plant, immediately treat it with an insecticide, then it is not always possible to achieve the desired result. The worms or their larvae (egg sacs) need to be disturbed - with a stick, brush, cotton wool, weaken their protection - a wax shell, only then the insecticide can act on them. Such a complex treatment is carried out every 4-5 days. With more rare processing, no measures help.

And even knowing all this, I had to fight with a mealybug on nolin for half a year. I thought I would never get rid of it.

When damaged by root scales, the soil is completely changed. The pots are thoroughly washed in hot water with a disinfectant. The roots of plants are carefully examined, washed in running water and completely placed in a solution of any insecticide for 15 minutes.

The plant should be transplanted into fresh, moist soil, carefully watered, and a week later - with an insecticide solution. But even after that, make it a rule to carefully examine the plant, so that at the first detection of white lumps, you can resume the fight against them.

At risk are many plants with dense, smooth and hard leaves, like alocasia, aglaonema, dracaena, dieffenbachia, sansieveria, nephrolepis, ficus, small-leaved carmona, citrus, Mediterranean, subtropical plants, cacti, succulents, euphorbia (almost all indoor plants ). Do not overmoisten the soil in pots, do not create cold drafts, use sterile soil. Quarantine newly acquired plants, and only then substitute them for your home collection.

When writing the article, materials from the site otsvetax.ru, ru.wikipedia.org, magazine Home Flowers 8/2009 - article by N. Galynskaya about the mealybug were used.