Mealy Bugs On Carnivorous plants.

[Rassie31]

Good day to all

My name is Rassie, I am new here, so nice to meet you. I have a few carnivorous plants, like the Cape Sundew (Drosera), Forkleaf Sundew (Drosera Binata), Venus flytraps (Small and giant), Parrot Pithcer palnt, and Purple pitcher plant. They are all doing good, but I have had some trouble with Mealy Bugs on them. I have sprayed them with normal purified water, to get them of. It lasted about a week and they were back. I have replanted them all because I saw online the mealy bugs lay their egg in the substrate. That did not work. I then saw people say spray it with rose care, that did not work, and then I tried Oleum oil (also saw that online), it does not work to get rid of the mealy bugs. I am busy losing my Forkleaf Sundew. I don't know what to do anymore.

Are there someone that have or had the same problem and what can you suggest. There are very little information online on how to get rid of mealy bugs on carnivorous plants. I would appreciate any information that I can get to get rid of these pesty little things.

Thank you very much and have a great day.

 

[adnedarn]

Hello, and welcome to TerraForums! There are a number of systemic products out there that are safe for CPs that are effective against mealybugs. Under no circumstance should you assume one treatment of any product will take care of them. I generally use a multi product approach. Neem oil can be effective against the live ones actively on your plant as this product only works in direct contact and is a quick knockdown. For the hiders and hatchers you will want to use a systemic product using imidacloprid or acephate for example which the plant will absorb and kill the pests as they eat your plant. I avoid any that have insecticidal soap and fertilizers. It seems mealybugs can be resistant to these some times so I've taken on the habit of rotating products and slightly overlapping them (apply the other one before the reapply time of the prior one) and feel free to grab that neem oil and spray in between your synthetic products to knock down any that are hanging on past those hanging on or freshly hatched ones before they even get a chance to settle in and start munching. Start an application log noting the reapply times so you can stay on schedule and do a couple applications even after you're not longer seeing them to make sure you're getting any that are hatching.
Good luck!

 

[hcarlton]

Mealybugs are some of the absolute worst things to deal with, because contact insecticides usually won't work unless it's an oil (and most of those can be damaging to carnivores), they will hide in the tiniest crevices on and around the roots and stems so not all will be hit by a direct drench either, and their feeding habits also keep a lot of systemics away from them in the strength needed to deal.
Acephate, imidacloprid, and abamectin are all supposed systemics that may have effect, but an absolute drench of the plants and soil, reapplication of the same or even more preferably another systemic after a couple weeks, or sometimes a restart altogether if it's a relatively replaceable plant have to be considered.