FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey all,

I finally got mealybugs on some of my sarracenia. It doesn't look too crazy so far, just a few around the crowns of some of my big, healthy sarracenia, like one or two per plant.

I just took some rubbing alcohol on a q tip and swabbed them, and they died off. Then I swabbed all the crowns of my plants with the rubbing alcohol just in case. Then I sprayed my plants with Bioadvanced 3-in-1.

Anything else I should be doing?

I almost lost a treasured rosea because of those little $&#*#$% so I'm going to overreact. The only way I managed to get rid of them was to unpot the plant, wash all of the media, and douse it with insecticide. I ended up having to chop up the plant to get at some of the buggers hiding under where the pitcher attaches to the rhizome. The plant still hasn't recovered and is only about 1/4 of its original size.

Damn, that freaking sucks. What did you douse it in, Bioadvanced 3 in 1? So frustrating, I've never had mealybugs until literally right now.

The last time that I had a serious mealybug infestation, it took 3 heavy doses of BioAdvanced 3-in-1 to finally wipe them out. I mentioned this to Matt, and he said that his heavy-hitter solution is Safari 20 SG systemic insecticide, foliar-spray and soil-drench applications. This stuff isn't cheap: a 12-ounce bottle of concentrate on Amazon goes for $135. If it'll annihilate these little sap-suckers, then it's money well spent.

MikeB wrote: ↑Sat Sep 14, 2024 1:34 am The last time that I had a serious mealybug infestation, it took 3 heavy doses of BioAdvanced 3-in-1 to finally wipe them out. I mentioned this to Matt, and he said that his heavy-hitter solution is Safari 20 SG systemic insecticide, foliar-spray and soil-drench applications. This stuff isn't cheap: a 12-ounce bottle of concentrate on Amazon goes for $135. If it'll annihilate these little sap-suckers, then it's money well spent.

I'll keep that in mind!

Yeah, so far I only just saw like....1 or two on like 2 of my sarracenia. I just dabbed them with alcohol and gave all the growth points a dab, then sprayed everything with bioadvanced.

I guess I need to space out my sarracenia, I have them all on my table so they're clustered together, so I think they had too many hiding space for them this year.

Ugh, this is horrifying, I was digging through all my sarracenia to check for mealybugs and saw that my Judith Hindle was freaking covered in them more closer to the soil line.

When I take them out of the soil to treat, do I use new soil?

Yes.

Ugh, this is horrifying, I dug up ALL my sarracenia just in case, and one BIG one I got at the Chattahoochee conservation center was absolutely covered in mealybugs on the roots.

I used a hose and hosed off and removed all the dead matter, and swabbed everything with 70% alcohol. I then blasted the roots with Bioadvanced 3 in 1. Then I repotted all the plants with fresh peat moss and perlite, and put some Bonide systemic granuales in the top inch of the media layer, and watered from the top. Hope that does it, that was painful.

I also noticed ants running around in the roots of one of the sarracenia I repotted. Do they just leave after all the mealybugs are dead? Does the systemic help kill them?

I told you. I hate those things!

Panman wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2024 8:55 pm I told you. I hate those things!

Butt-nuggets, man!

I think they came with a plant I got last year from the Chattahoochee Nature Center, since that's the plant where all the roots were totally infested. Hopefully the systemics knock them down. My hands are so tired from digging through everything lol.

I hope my other plants aren't impacted. My sundews and VFTs look ok, so I don't THINK I need to do anything.

Nikson wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2024 9:20 pm

Panman wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2024 8:55 pm I told you. I hate those things!

Butt-nuggets, man!

I think they came with a plant I got last year from the Chattahoochee Nature Center, since that's the plant where all the roots were totally infested. Hopefully the systemics knock them down. My hands are so tired from digging through everything lol.

I hope my other plants aren't impacted. My sundews and VFTs look ok, so I don't THINK I need to do anything.

I doubt they have been there that long. You would have noticed months ago. They killed one of my oreophilla's I was given.

andynorth wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2024 11:28 pm

Nikson wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2024 9:20 pm

Panman wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2024 8:55 pm I told you. I hate those things!

Butt-nuggets, man!

I think they came with a plant I got last year from the Chattahoochee Nature Center, since that's the plant where all the roots were totally infested. Hopefully the systemics knock them down. My hands are so tired from digging through everything lol.

I hope my other plants aren't impacted. My sundews and VFTs look ok, so I don't THINK I need to do anything.

I doubt they have been there that long. You would have noticed months ago. They killed one of my oreophilla's I was given.

Hmmm, maybe, yeah. I guess they just showed up. I remember seeing a single mealy bug on one of my avocado plants I planted outside at the start of summer, but I killed it with alcohol.

MikeB wrote:The last time that I had a serious mealybug infestation, it took 3 heavy doses of BioAdvanced 3-in-1 to finally wipe them out. I mentioned this to Matt, and he said that his heavy-hitter solution is Safari 20 SG systemic insecticide, foliar-spray and soil-drench applications. This stuff isn't cheap: a 12-ounce bottle of concentrate on Amazon goes for $135. If it'll annihilate these little sap-suckers, then it's money well spent.

Safari 20 SG works great on mealys. Unfortunately, even though I eradicate them, they always come back here in Missouri. We've had them every year since we moved here in June 2021. I am diligent about checking the plants and usually catch them super early when they're only on a pot or two, so I can treat just those pots or move them outside the greenhouses.

I've come to accept that I simply have to spray more often here than I had to in Oregon, so I'm on a routine now where I spray about every 3 months. Even doing that, we still get scale and mealybug outbreaks on occasion. Crazy how many pests there are here in Missouri!

Nikson wrote:I hope my other plants aren't impacted. My sundews and VFTs look ok, so I don't THINK I need to do anything.

Yeah, I've never seen mealys on Drosera or Dionaea, so you should be good there. Sarracenia are the pest magnets! I'm sure that sundews and VFTs would make suitable hosts if there weren't other options, but mealys seem to prefer Sarracenia.

Nikson wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2024 8:51 pm Ugh, this is horrifying, I dug up ALL my sarracenia just in case, and one BIG one I got at the Chattahoochee conservation center was absolutely covered in mealybugs on the roots.

Mealybugs are insidious. It's bad enough when they're on the leaves, but when they hide in the soil, they can wreak havoc before you know what's going on. If you can't repot the plants, then hit them with 3 or 4 soil drenches of insecticide, about 1 week apart.

MikeB wrote:

Nikson wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2024 8:51 pm Ugh, this is horrifying, I dug up ALL my sarracenia just in case, and one BIG one I got at the Chattahoochee conservation center was absolutely covered in mealybugs on the roots.

Mealybugs are insidious. It's bad enough when they're on the leaves, but when they hide in the soil, they can wreak havoc before you know what's going on. If you can't repot the plants, then hit them with 3 or 4 soil drenches of insecticide, about 1 week apart.

Yeah, I COMPLETELY repotted by sarracenia. I took a hose and blasted the peat moss off as best as I could from the roots (my garden hose water is like 51 ppm thankfully), and threw away the pots they came in since they had a bunch of the mealy fuzz on it. I took rubbing alcohol and rubbed it EVERYWHERE, I pulled off dead growth and stabbed everything that even looked white with a q tip. One of my plants had the freaking ants running around in the roots too farming the mealies.

I took Bioadvanced 3-in-1, the spray bottle kind, and sprayed the entire plant, drenched the crown, and sprayed the roots. Then I repotted into fresh peat/perlite, then put a layer of Bonide system granuales on the top inch, covered it up, and watered from the top.

Hope that's good.

Do you know if the liquid version of bonide is better? I just got the systemic granuales first since I just saw people recommending the granuale ones first, but now that I think about it maybe the liquid one would be better to use on sarracenia since they permanently sit wet? Or are they about the same in performance?