I have grown Crassula ovata for the past 20 years recently. Take them out of the pots and examine the mix and roots. Cactus mix is not good for Succulents or Cactus. It holds too much water, and I am going to repeat my self, Succulents are from Africa, they grow on rocky outcrops, they do not like water, unless it drains fast. How much white stuff is in your mix? any rocks, if not put some stream rocks into the mix. "Jade" grow by the thousands on Rocky Hills sides, so the rain goes down rapidly through the rocks, they grow into the cracks. They do not get the care that you are giving them. In the summer they lose leaves, they don't like the heat they are winter growers. I have a wonder full book from Charles Glass and if you don't know who he is your are a beginner. Fianl words from his book. It's just plain common sense. "There is an illusiion of comfort in rules such as 'Water when dry" (what is dry?") 'Full sun" CA sun or New York Sun. African Sun'" Water ever two week, in CA we must water once a week. We have low humidity except this week. here are no rules concerning good culture which may not and and occasionally whould not be broken; there are principles and guide-lines which when followed with interest, Common Sense is the most important factor in growing plants." CActi and Succulents for the Amateur. Jade leaves are not supposed to crack, the plants are not supposed to ooze. I use Saffer's Soap, which is nothing but soapy water, and not detergent, with maybe some alcohol added. You can wash off the spider mites, if you water on a regular schedule, and get rid or soil mealies. When was the last time you changed the soil, perhaps the roots need to be cut back 1/3 and theh plant topped 1/3 not now but the first of October, just remember rules are just guide lines and use them as such. How large are your Jades ? When is the last time they were trimmed, soil changed? Does your hair fall out. So do their leaves, are they getting good air circulation? Are they getting cool nights and plenty of air circulation. I wash mine down once a week because it makes sense to me. I follow how the Huntington Gardens takes care of their plants, it workds for them and it has always worked for me since I was a child. We use no pesticides for the 100,000 plants that we have documentated growing in one green house and outside on benches with no heat. The proof in in the plants. The above suggestions are excellent I would listen if I were you. All of us have tricks in growing. Good luck, love your plants and they will love you. Randy I didn't even need to look at the photo, you are right on and so are the rest of the suggestions from others. Norma

I'd be careful buying ladybugs, the species for sale are almost always an invasive chinese species (Harmonia axyridis) which is very variable in form but always has an "M" shape on back of the head. This ladybug is more generalist and often eats aphids. If your yard provides habitat + food for predatory bugs they will come generally, so long as it isn't an invasive species then there might not be any predators. Bought generalist ladybugs often just leave the area and contribute even more to invading habitats of native ladybugs. There is also Cryptolaemus montrouzier, a more specific eater of mealybugs, which UF reccommends as a biological control for mealybugs but because they require so much prey to survive, they alone cannot completely remove them. Kinda like how a wolf doesn't kill all the elk, there's a balance. Mealybug we tend to see iirc are also invasive. I have a bad infestation this year that I've never seen before and I think it's the new invasive species "pink hibiscus mealybug'. I'm trying to kill all eggs and females (males are harder since they like flies) but it's difficult and I can't spray because I butterfly garden (and generally find pesticides only worsen pests in the longterm) also i do not believe there are any pesticides approved for them so do not bother.

Yeah. Use the precor stuff and stick with it. I forgot how sleazy pet control places can be. We are lucky to have an independent one here. We used them for the mouse in the house problem last spring. We paid just for the service we needed. Past big-name pest control places were scams. A big up-front fee and $75 every other month or so for a year. All I needed was treatment for in-wall carpenter ants. Nothing else. I refused to let them spray anything in the home or outside in the fenced yard area (half of the perimeter of the house) because of the three dogs. All I wanted was boric acid puffed into the walls. Okay, so I paid for that and I would have to pay for them to come redo it every couple of months. That was the ony way to get it done, and I could not physically do the work myself at the time. One month I got a bill. They had not been out. I called. They said that they had "done the outside" when I was not home. I explained that there was no "outside" to do, since they cannot spray in the back yard. And I knew there were no footprints in the snow in the front yard, so just what was it that they did?! Not to mention that there IS nothing to spray on the outside of a house in Michigan in January. If I remember right, this bill also came after the expiration of the year's contract. It took me six months to get them to stop charging me for services that I was no longer getting. I think I had to complain to the authorities. I lived in Louisianna for four years and learned about fleas there. Back then, we spread Dursban in the yard every month or so and used the new sprays with Precor in them inside. One company had the precor chemical in a formulation that dried onto the carpet or fabric fibers on the furniture. The dried chemical was actually micro-encapsulated precor that would pop if a flea walked on the dired bubble and it would poison the flea. This was before the spot-on treatments like Frontline. It did work for us. Just vacuum a lot, throw out the bag (or vacuum up some chemical and hope it stays in the bag?) after each day. We were told to wash everything washable in HOT water and that it would kill the eggs. We never had it so bad that you could see the fleas jumping onto your white socks, but my friend did. She had a cat, too. I had a dog. I wonder if the infestations are worse with cats? I do wonder about the flea waste that you see everywhere in the basement. It just makes me wonder what the heck is feeding them all. Are you sure no critters can get in the basement?

I just remembered that when we were at that park in Louisiana I got online to find something to use on Mia to help rid her of the fleas that were on her that was safe. I found mixing a portion of apple cider vinegar with water and a drop of detergent in a spray bottle was amazingly successful. We set her on a towel, I sprayed her to dripping wet with the spray and we watched the fleas just float up and we would just pick them off of her onto a paper towel every one was dead. I had no idea that would work. We reapplied a few more times with in the next day or so and each time less and less fleas. So you might want to try that, nothing in it that would harm the pet. In fact I add apple cider vinegar to Mia's food daily as directed by her vet for her reflux. We were really amazed. Luckily I had everything right there in the rv to use on her immediately. Poor baby was just scratching like crazy, we did not let her back outside in that area.