Pest management is complex, if you want to learn, a good place to start is here: Integrated Pest Management This lecture is presented in two parts. Each part is 90-minutes in length. Recorded in Sacramento County in California's Sacramento Valley, this lecture is by Mary Louise Flint, Ph.D., Director, IPM Education and Publications, UC Statewide IPM Project and Extension Entomologist & Cooperative Extension Specialist. Education: B.S. Plant Science, University of California, Davis Ph.D. Entomology, University of California, Berkeley Appointment: 100% Cooperative Extension Research Interests: Integrated pest management of landscape, agricultural and garden pests; biological control of arthropod pests; alternatives to pesticides; adoption of alternative practices by practitioners; innovative delivery of pest management information. Topics discussed in the Integrated Pest Management Lecture: * IPM references and resources * Preventing pest problems * Natural common enemies * Making less toxic pesticide choices * Controlling aphids, scales, caterpillars, coddling moths, tree borers, snails and slugs, and lawn insects. You can watch the programs now online: Just make sure you have Real Player installed or download it free. Integrated Pest Management Part1 90 minutes Integrated Pest Management Part 2 90 minutes You'll want to bookmark the following link to Professor Flint's Lab Research on: Controlling Pests in Gardens and Landscapes: Vegetables and Melons I promise you'll learn one or two things to put in your gardening bag of pest management arsenals. ;)

I dunno. Mealys are bad enough that I think you're going to need more than soap. Yes, leaving water on fuzzy leaves can make permanent marks on them, especially if the plants are in sun when you get them wet. But, you know, leaving mealybugs on fuzzy leaves is going to kill your plant, and possibly any other plants in the vicinity too (in fact, you should inspect any nearby plants very carefully, I think, because where there's one infestation, there are likely others). So it's kind of a question about whether you want an ugly plant or a dead plant. If it were me, I'd probably be inclined to take a few cuttings and chuck the rest of the plant in the trash: it's not worth fighting mealybugs, to me, just to have a plant that's as easily propagated as Gynura aurantiaca is. (Granted, the cuttings might have mealys too. But if you taken enough cuttings fast enough, you should be able to outrun them.) If you have sentimental attachment to the plant that makes you want to save it, I'd go with some kind of spray containing imidacloprid, follow the label directions (which usually allow for you to spray the plant weekly), and move the plant out of direct sun until the crisis has passed. The safest bet of all is to do both: cuttings and spray. If the spray works, you have multiple plants; if the spray fails, you at least have the cuttings as back-up.

What Pam said ^^^; and, the most significant factors in determining whether or not a grow medium is appropriate are whether or not the soil contains anything phytotoxic and particle size. Container media do not wear out, even though this idea is often suggested. Soil particles just become smaller and smaller, which increases the amount of water a medium can hold while decreasing the amount of air porosity. There is no question it's better to err on the side of more porosity and water more frequently than to err on the side of too little porosity and see the planting suffer from poor root function or even wrecked root health. One cannot take a quart of fine material, like peat, coir, or sand, and "amend it by adding coarse materials like pine bark. That practice actually DECREASES o/a air porosity until the fraction of coarse materials becomes so large there is no longer enough fine material to fill the larger spaces between the coarse particles. Two observations about mixture reaches the "threshold proportion", which occurs when there is exactly enough fine material to fill all spaces between large particles: 1) It will have less aeration and be more difficult to grow in than peat, coir, or sand or a mix thereof. 2) Adding additional coarse material to mixtures at or beyond the threshold proportion such that the coarse material becomes a very large fraction of the medium (around 80%) quickly increases o/a air porosity. Container media is all about structure and its ability to retain that structure for the expected life of the planting. So, as Pam and I mentioned, there is little sense in reusing a medium, the structure of which is inappropriate. That seldom ends well. Used media can be used as the much smaller fine fraction we might add to coarser material when putting a medium together, but even then, particles of slightly larger size 1/20-1/10" (about the size of coarse ground pepper) would be the better choice. As in life, our growing experience and how much reward we're able to realize from our efforts is a product of the decisions we make. There's no judgement to be made about what a grower does or doesn't do, we all order our priorities differently, but that doesn't change the fact that what the grower chooses will always have an impact on how the plant responds. Al

could we see a pic of the whole ... palms shed leaves .. fronds i suppose.. yearly ... it is the oldest ones.. outer most ... and usually in winter .... or shortly thereafter ... and not unlike deciduous trees.. the dead leaves can get pretty funky before removal or shedding ... that is not to say.. something else isnt going on ... but perhaps there is more than one thing going on ... how does the new center growth look??? ... is it affected... or looking good.. hence the further pic ... [on rereading i see its not great either...] finally.. many of the problem bugs exude honeydew ... a sugary substance.. and often the ants harvest such ... the ants are usually what catches our eye.. to find the real culprit ... but the ants are really not a problem at all .. in regard the plant ...but yikes... we dont want them in the house ... more finally ... lol ... if you are in a warm enough area.. you might want to isolate this outside... in full shade.. until we figure this out.. and what to do about it ... sometimes.. its just easier to get rid of the whole mess .. if its not some treasured plant.. like grandmas.. or something like that.. otherwise... palms shouldnt be that rare that you need to spend a hundred bucks trying to cure and save a $20 plant.. if you get my drift ... ken ps: also. what 'soap' did you use ... when such is suggested.. they mean horticultural soap.. not you common dish DETERGENT ... which can severely harm tender leaves .. of which i never thought of palm as being tender ... but thats another episode ...