http://organicgardensite.com/bugs-harmful/mealy-bugs/ Organic Gardening - saving our planet one yard at a time! Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:52:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://organicgardensite.com/bugs-harmful/mealy-bugs/comment-page-1/#comment-2003 finnegan Fri, 26 Nov 2010 17:54:25 +0000 http://organicgardensite.com/?p=33#comment-2003 I have 5 huge [5.5 ft.] gardenia trees, potted and housed in an indoor 70° sunroom [full sun most of the day]... When i purchased these trees i inspected them and the appeared to be 'clean'... only to find dang mealy bugs on them about 2 weeks later. I have tried several remedies including asking them very nicely to leave, yelling at them, quickly to be followed with soapy sprays and rubbing alcohol. I have found the best luck with the alcohol [using a small artists paintbrush to douse them and easier to remove them than a q-tip] I have been diligent with the rubbing alcohol every single day looking in every nook and cranny for these buggers, literally for hours... Every day there seems to be more. The trees are starting to really show signs of stress. Yellowing wilting leaves, distorted new growth, etc... I try to clean the sticky residue off the leaves so not to get black mold [which occasionally appears]. Please give me another alternative. These plants were pretty expensive up here in New England and I really want them to live! I have 5 huge [5.5 ft.] gardenia trees, potted and housed in an indoor 70° sunroom [full sun most of the day]… When i purchased these trees i inspected them and the appeared to be ‘clean’… only to find dang mealy bugs on them about 2 weeks later. I have tried several remedies including asking them very nicely to leave, yelling at them, quickly to be followed with soapy sprays and rubbing alcohol. I have found the best luck with the alcohol [using a small artists paintbrush to douse them and easier to remove them than a q-tip] I have been diligent with the rubbing alcohol every single day looking in every nook and cranny for these buggers, literally for hours… Every day there seems to be more. The trees are starting to really show signs of stress. Yellowing wilting leaves, distorted new growth, etc… I try to clean the sticky residue off the leaves so not to get black mold [which occasionally appears].
Please give me another alternative. These plants were pretty expensive up here in New England and I really want them to live!

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