Hi friends, I'm struggling with a similar problem and could really use some advice. I apologize for how long this is, but it's kind of a specific circumstance. My fiancée and I just moved into a little apartment with a lovely little deck that we'd love to be able to use and have friends over on. Unfortunately, the frame of the back door that leads out onto the porch is also the entry point for what appears to be a pretty large nest of honeybees. We have no way of knowing how old this nest is because we moved here from out of state (I've just started grad school in the area) and only discovered the bees when we were moving in (mid-august). The bees certainly aren't aggressive, but I have a crippling fear of all things-with-stingers because of a bad experience when I was very young (I've been stung since then in my life; I know it's not terrible, and that as long as we leave them alone it's highly unlikely, but when is fear ever rational or easily controlled?). I'm beyond disappointed we can't use our porch for this reason��"even opening the back door before they've gone to sleep causes a lot of stress and anxiety��" because it's one of the reasons we chose this place, but much MORE IMPORTANTLY than that, as the weather is starting too cool down here, they are finding their way into the warmth of our living space now and then. THAT I am completely unwilling to deal with in any capacity. Bees are completely unwelcome inside my house. We simply CANNOT tear apart our walls from either side because we do not own this building (nor are we financially-eqipped or have the time to do so), and while our leasing-management was great about sending an exterminator (twice) when we complained, all he did was spray around with some general pesticide that of course didn't even get into hive or probably kill more than a couple of bees if any. From the research I've done, no exterminator is equipped to handle this anyway. We're only going to be here for a few years while I complete my degree, so at this point, I'm not looking for ways to get rid of or move the bees, but ways to minimize our interactions with them so we can just deal with them as a temporary problem and I can function a bit better, with less anxiety issues (since our leasing-office seems disinterested in actually taking care of them, they can deal with every tenent they ever have complaining about them, I guess). We can't locate how the bees get inside the house so we haven't been able to seal it, but if there's some sort of spray or something we can use generally on our walls and in the area to discourage them from coming this direction, that'd be great. Recommendations, traps, or other ways to lure them away from the door/minimize their presence on our porch would also be great, but at this point, the only thing I NEED accomplished is to keep them from coming inside. I am unopposed to any methods that involve killing them. I truly wish I didn't have to, but there's simply no way we can get them moved. When they're outside, that's their business, but bees that come inside my house and violate my safe-space feeling have forfeited all empathy I have for them.

Thanks everybody for your discussions! Nomen, I do like your idea of keeping two or more of the rarer succulents. Been keeping multiple clones of one particularly sentimental aloe of mine. Bernard, my scourge continues as well. Had a single H. Zebrina segment with the root ball planted straight up two weeks ago. Over time it started to slant sideways and I didn't think much of it. Pulled it up a little today and it ripped apart at the base - mealy eggs! Mix and all went into the garbage. It was sprayed with insecticide a few times too, quite liberally. I think if the eggs are laid among the top of the roots, it is extremely difficult to kill them with any spray at all, even if bare-rooting the plant. Going to re-spray the segments I was trying to root separately again, just in case. They looked alright, but I seriously question if it's worth the effort! One 709mL bottle of insecticide is the cost of two plants. Oh! I did microwave the original gritty mix though (two weeks back). Didn't tell the wife what I put in the microwave and let it air out as much as possible afterwards... it does have a very characteristic smell after being cooked a little.

I use adblock plus on my mac in Firefox and I don't see any ads in Yahoo. When GW switched to Houzz, someone posted about adding "Styles" to make the page appear more like the old GW. I added something called Morning Glory. One of the benefits is it is blocking out all the new ads that Houzz is putting on the sidebar. I looked at GW in Safari where I don't have "Styles" added and the ads made me crazy. I checked on Firefox by turning off the "Style" and could see all the ads for Houzz. I couldn't get adblocker to block them. So I simply turned the Morning Glories back on. Oh, and I donate every year to AdblockerPlus because I appreciate it so much!

Well no, you should get a positive ID for the pest, then select a control regimen. Not the other way around. Is there not some expert in your area that can make a correct diagnosis for a few bucks? Treating when you don't know what you are treating is another thing that does not compute for me. As I said, mealy bug is a greenhouse pest in all but the most tropical of places. Cottony scales of many species exist and I suspect this is what you have there. So, if you are able to make certain of that, then you can reach for suggested control regimens. But you're trying to do it backwards....treat the problem, then try and figure out what it is. That's bound to fail. Many types of scale insects can be controlled with horticultural oil. Timing of application can matter, as it is the "crawler" stage of these insect, basically the immature moving to set up shop somewhere on the plant.=, where they are moist vulnerable. But the oils can work even without this timing, because they can smother the insects and in some cases, even their eggs. So that might be one thing you can do, but really, you need to first identify what you are seeing.