I'm an avid orchid grower and a few odds and ends thrown in. I use cinnamon for all cuts and 'rotting' spots or damage spots. Cinnamon will burn orchid roots. I don't care to spray for anything. It just goes everywhere and then there are the airborne particles to contend with. I go with a drench. I use Merit 75, which is expensive but will last me a lifetime. I use it as a drench. 1/8 teaspoon to a gallon of water and drench the soil/medium. Now, I have used it on orchids and hoyas and succulents. But not on anything else. This year, I will be applying it to all my plants which will include the arrow leaf plant, table palms, coffee plant, bird of paradise, and a few others (sorry I have no specific names for my plants). I also relate this as I do not know if there are plants sensitive to this product. I drench by watering the plants medium/soil once a week for three weeks in a row and an extra week if I have mealies. The plants take the product up through their roots and into all parts. The insect bites and takes the toxin into its system and dies. You don't have to worry that you have not 'gotten' all the parts nor do you have to worry about scale on the roots or hidden on the plant. No dripping leaves, or wet walls/floors or airborne particles. All in one place - the soil and IN the plant.

Hi. Old thread but I think it exaggerates how easily mealies spread. These quotes are from this Masters Thesis: "The first mealybug instars do not move very far by crawling and rarely reach an adjacent vine in this manner" "Of all the stages in mealybug development, first instars are the most mobile since mealybugs tend to settle as soon as they encounter dense areas of trichomes or cracks in the shoot of vines " "Thus, long distance (between-vine) dispersal is limited to wind dispersal (e.g. natural or spray induced air flows), and by contact by humans (pruners, gloves, spray equipment, etc.), or potentially other animals in the field." "A recent study on the grape mealybug (P. maritimus) by Grasswitz & James (2008) looked at movement of mealybugs over a three-year time span. During the three years, they found mealybugs are capable of walking on vines in the field up to 90 cm from their origin point of release; however, most were found walking considerably shorter distances." So it seems to me the conclusion is that if you keep the plants 1.5 m apart then no mealy crawler will crawl between them (and with slighty less distances they might but not likely). And that what you have to worry about is wind/drafts and above all humans (and animals) who touch the plant. I also read somewhere someone stating pesticides don't work fast enough compared to how fast mealies reproduce but I don't think that's the case, I think the limitation of e g neonicotinoids like Imidacloprid is that the systemic action isn't strong enough due to (A) not reaching sufficient concentration in general and (B) not reaching sufficient concentration at some part of the plants where the bugs are. One way to address that might be to increase concentration of solution, but Imidacloprid doesn't have very good water solubility, I suggest switching to a different neonicotinoid with better solubility of which Dinotefuran (sold as Safari) is by far the best. Another thing to consider is that there are hundreds of different mealybugs of which some are more common and in tests some pesticides work best on some of these and some other on others which you can see here. As you can see, sometimes Safari has rating 5 and sometimes TriStar, even though both are neonicotionoids. Personally I wonder if this might have to do only with concentration, since all neonicotioids do have the same mode of action. But to be on the safe síde, maybe: First spray with Imidacloprid or Thiacloprid (whichever is available in your country) and cover every square mm of visible sides of plant and both sides of leaves since it also has contact action which is faster than the systemic activity (and this spray is easy to find, and will buy you time to find Safari, and limit amount of crawlers around meanwhile), 1-2 weeks later treat with Safari drench (possibly overdose), 10-14 days later leach the soil (using clean water, 2-3 pot volumes) then add fertilizer sticks with Acetamiprid (easy to find). Instead or in addition to "3" you might want to try Pyrifluquinazon spray (sold as Rycar) and/or Spirotetramat drench (sold as Kontos). Kontos, Rycar and Safari are not available except to professionals but you can find it by googling. If you need to repeat treatment, you should use a pesticide with a different mode of action like Rycar or Kontos. Kontos works very well on some mealies according to this (p59). If you have experience that contradicts this then please let us now. I can at least compare to spidermites based on experience: Above someone said that mites spread even more than mealies, but I have seen more than once how even a few millimeters between plant branches keeps them from spreading to the next plant (at least if the infected leaf is not above the other one). Good luck.

I am in the same situation, though it sounds like on a smaller scale. I killed the bamboo by having a garden worker clear cut my ca. 500 sq ft of bamboo (running). Then when the sprouts came back, I sprayed a grass killer on them (bamboo is a grass), and it worked like a charm. It's taken about five years to get rid of new growths from leftover fragments. The problem, as you noted, is that bamboo is literally as hard as metal (knives and flooring are made from it, after all). The stumps left are killer: I'm always tripping on them. The only way, I'm thinking, is to use a saw that cuts metal and working from the outside-in, cut the roots to release the stump. And then pull hard. Or backhoe the whole shebang. Another detractor: bamboo seriously depletes the soil. If you're lucky enough to get rid of it, you're left with dry dust soil requiring a lot of compost. Horrible! Running bamboo is an invasive plant. Gardeners and nurseries should require permits to sell or plant it. Sure, it's pretty, but a pest. Kind of like that guy you knew in college ...

Hello everyone. My dwarf Meyer in a large terracotta pot has/had a severe infestation of scale I caught later in the game rather than earlier. I thoroughly cleaned off the scale by hand and a toothbrush. The branches appear alive but ALL of the leaves appear withered and dried. I fear it went on too long unnoticed. I watered with a liquid fertilizer to encourage new growth. Should I remove all of the dead leaves? Would this encourage new leaves? I did not use a soapy solution nor did I use neem oil. It's been roughly one week. I do not see a reinfestation. I hope I didn't lose the tree and it can recover. Any and all suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you.