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Cacti & Succulents

White, sticky, powdery stuff on succulents. Help!

7 years ago

Here's a photo of one of my succulents that has developed some white sticky-like powder on its leaves. Leaves are dropping. It has spread to a neighboring succulent, so I need help identifying it and need to know what action to take. Can they be saved or do I have to remove them from my succulent garden to keep from infecting the other plants?

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Comments (4)

hoovb zone 9 sunset 23
7 years ago
Might be mealy bugs. look with a magnifying glass. Certainly there are some hard-water deposits on the foliage, but I assume you are not referring to those. Mealies are fairly easy to kill, take a spraybottle, fill with half water, half isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, (vodka works in a pinch but it is more expensive) and spray daily for several days--you have to kill the eggs as well as the adult bugs, and they can re-infest.
rooftopbklyn (zone 7a)
7 years ago
Get the closest picture you can focus, crop a section to 800x600 at 100%. Most modern phones or digicams should have enough resolution to show mealybugs clearly without fancy macro lenses.
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k_schofield
7 years ago
Looks like mealy bugs, as hoovb said. I have them at the moment!
oldalgebra
Original Author
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Thank you, everyone. I'm on it!

I do get overspray from the yard next door, hence the water deposits. The neighbors are so nice, but they are renters. I don't say anything, as the owners are responsible for the yard and are a bit touchy. I keep my distance so that I have some leverage in case a real problem comes up.

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