Mealybug: how to fight, remedies and preparations. Mealybug control on houseplants Mealybug causes

Most species of felters live in tropical climates. On the territory of the countries former USSR there are only 5 species. Especially often bristly, grape and seaside worms harm agricultural and indoor crops. In order to properly deal with the pest, you need to determine which felter settled on the plants.

Seaside

The pest lives in orchards, vineyards, affects greenhouse and greenhouse crops. Body length up to 4 mm. Females lay eggs in the bases of leaves, in the bark and other hidden places, covering them with a white cocoon. Places of accumulation of adult insects are flowers and peduncles, and sometimes inner side leaves.

Bristly

The length of the insect is 3.5 mm in a centimeter. The body is oval, reddish in color, covered with white bristles, like flour. hallmark- two long protrusions in the back of the body. Insects gather in several pieces and take cover on the plant.

Bristly felters crawl quickly and can move from one plant to another. Males do not harm, but females pierce leaves, young twigs and bulbs, sucking nutritious juices out of them. Affected shoots turn yellow, stop developing, scales dry up on the bulbs.

The bristle felter is a viviparous insect. Females give birth to live larvae, doing without cocoons, so there is practically no white coating on flowers like cotton wool. The insect damages many plants, including indoor and ornamental ones.

Grape

It harms a wide range of agricultural and ornamental crops. The grape scale is especially dangerous for citrus fruits. An insect can live on almost any flowering plant. In gardens, it affects pears, apples, eggplants, legumes. Very common in greenhouses. In the room, cacti and gardenias suffer from it. The reasons for the appearance are the infection of plants from each other.

The length of an adult female is about 3 mm, the body is brownish or pinkish, powdered, like flour, with a white coating. Setae run along the edge of the body. The male can fly, resembling a mosquito in flight. The female grape scale insect lays eggs and covers them with a fluffy layer of wax threads.

Signs of infection

Agricultural crops are harmed by nymphs and female felters. Insects inhabit the aerial parts of plants, including fruits, and feed on their juice. Pests leave sweet secretions, which are populated by microscopic fungi.

Having strongly multiplied, the worms can bring the plant to death, even if it is an adult tree.

The most affected by felters:

• berries;
• Apple tree;
• rose hip;
• young birches;
• bird cherry;
• felt cherry.

From indoor mealybugs can appear on dracaena, violets, palm trees, Benjamin's ficus, cacti, money tree(fat woman), and others.

Photos of infected plants:

Signs of the appearance of felters:

1. white sticky coating or white lumps appear on leaf blades, petioles and young stems;
2. leaves, green branches or unblown inflorescences are covered with a sticky substance;
3. young parts of the plant are colonized by white flightless insects with an elongated body;
4. plants lose their elasticity, wilt, wither.

White plaque on a fat woman, photo:

autumn and in early spring the worm can be fought mechanically:

Before bud break, you can walk with fire from gas burner along the boles and skeleton of trees, where clusters of clutches enclosed in cocoons are concentrated. Before this, with a metal brush, you need to scrape off pieces of exfoliated bark. The fire must be quick, the bark and kidneys must not be burned.

From early May to mid-June, larvae and females openly feed and prepare for breeding. This is the time when systemic insecticides are effective.

Important. Contact poisons are not suitable for the destruction of worms, since their body is covered with a strong chitinous shell, through which toxins do not penetrate.

The mealybugs lay their eggs during the period when most vegetable and fruit crops crop ripens. At this time, pest control with chemicals is not possible. Immediately after harvest (until mid-September), you can do another spraying with systemic insecticides.

In autumn, mealybug larvae are actively looking for a place to winter, moving along trunks and branches, gathering in leaf litter. Therefore, at the beginning of October, it is advisable to install trapping belts on the trees again.

How to deal with mealybug? Video:

Insecticides

The list of insecticides approved for felt control is updated and supplemented annually.

• Biscay;
• Calypso;
• Confidor.

Of the biological insecticides, Fitoverm performed well. It is valuable that this drug is allowed to be used in greenhouses and greenhouses - this is where mealybugs most often settle.

Insecticides destroy only adult insects, without affecting the mealybug eggs, which are protected by a dense coating and an impenetrable chitinous shell. Therefore, it is important to carry out a second spraying after 7-10 days. It will get rid of the hatched larvae. If you ignore this rule, insects will again begin to destroy plants.

Folk remedies

Traditional wrestling is ineffective due to the fact that the body of the felter is covered with a water-repellent layer, so a solution of soap, an infusion of ash, tobacco, garlic and other caustic substances will not help. However, if a little is added to the aqueous solution organic solvents(alcohol, vodka or kerosene), the product will work.

The main thing is not to overdo it, so as not to burn the plants. No more than one tablespoon of an organic solvent is added per liter of the mixture.

As an insecticide, you can use any of the following substances (per 1 liter of water):

• green potassium soap - 15 ml;
• laundry soap- 15 g;
• crushed powder of marigold flowers - 100 g;
• vegetable oil - 2 tablespoons.

To combat the root mealybug that has settled on the roots of an indoor flower, use hot water:

1. They take it out of the pot.
2. They remove the earth from the roots.
3. The roots are placed in a pot of water heated to 55 degrees.
4. Withstand 15 minutes.
5. Transplanted into a new pot with fresh soil.

Video from an amateur gardener:

Prevention

Prevention of the appearance of felt includes the following activities:

• inspection - for indoor plants must not be white plaque and or adult insects;
• sufficient moisture - worms do not like damp places, preferring to settle in dry areas, so plants need to be “bathed” with a hose or watering can;
• quarantine - after purchasing an indoor flower, it is important to place the purchase for one to two weeks separately from other flowers.

Mealybugs are usually very easy to see, most of them can be from below and in the axils of foliage, on petioles and stems. In these places, discharges resembling cotton wool are visible, they contain eggs. Therefore, the plants attacked by the mealybug seem to be covered with cotton wool or fluff. Further, larvae hatch from the eggs, they crawl through the culture and suck the juice.

What plants most often affects and what is dangerous?

Citrus bugs attack citrus crops (grapefruit, citron, tangerine, orange, calamondin). In females, the body is up to 4 mm, it is light pink, covered with a whitish coating. Females lay eggs after 15 days of their lives. Live 3 months. males beige shade, have transparent wings, live 2-4 days.

Grapes are attacked by grapevine. The female has a wide oval body, it is pinkish or yellowish, has a white coating that resembles a powder. Males are quite rare.

Orchids are exotic plants, which are very demanding on the conditions of detention. But apart from the hassle of organizing proper lighting, watering and fertilizing flower growers have to deal with diseases and pests that often affect this flower. If a mealybug wound up on an orchid, how ...

These cultures are affected by the bristly bug. In the female, the body is 3.5 mm, has an orange or pinkish tint, and is covered with bloom. And there is also a seaside worm. The female has a body up to 3-4 mm, it is pinkish-gray, with a snow-white coating. Males are smaller and have wings. The larvae are tiny, yellowish in color, they move quickly, they have no plaque.

As a result of the appearance of the mealybug, the flowers stop growing; shoots are deformed; foliage, ovaries, fruits fall off; branches dry up. During their activity, the females secrete honeydew, and then a sooty fungus appears on it.

How to deal with mealybugs on indoor plants?

To destroy the pest from biological preparations, lepidocide is used.

Effective chemicals

Next, spray with a solution of green soap, rubbing 10-15 g in 1 liter of water. Do this spraying 3 times at weekly intervals. You can use tobacco infusion, garlic juice, onion juice or cyclamen decoction instead of soap. You can treat the plant with alcohol or tincture of calendula. Place mandarin or orange peels in water, leave for 1-2 days, and then sprinkle the culture with infusion.

Grate 1 teaspoon of soap, pour in hot water. Then add water so that the result is 1 liter, pour another 1 tbsp. a spoonful of alcohol or 2 tbsp. spoons of vodka. Cover the soil in a pot with something, and then soak a cotton wool in a solution of alcohol, collect all the pests, change the cotton wool from time to time. The next day, rinse the culture with warm water. And after 3-4 days, repeat the treatment.

Mash 25-70 g of garlic, pour in 1 liter of boiling water, leave for 6 hours, and then wipe the indoor culture with a brush soaked in the infusion. Do it in the evening. Next, cover the plant from the sun for 2 days.

Pour in 2 tbsp. tablespoons of olive oil in 1 liter of water. Wipe the entire plant with a dampened cotton swab.

Collect the horsetail herb, dry it, chop it, pour 4 teaspoons of the herb into 0.5 liters of boiling water. Leave for 20 minutes. Strain the infusion, spray and water the culture with it.

Mealybug on an orchid: treatment

Orchids are mainly attacked by citrus and bristly mealybugs. The females of the bristly mealybug are reddish and covered with a whitish coating. Long hairs are visible behind their bodies. Males are greyish, they have transparent wings.

Healthy well-groomed orchids secrete substances that repel a variety of insects, including mealybugs. Therefore, a mealybug appears on an orchid if the plant is sick.

Mealybug, how to deal with houseplants?

Then grate dark laundry soap, pour it into the settled water and mix. Next, carefully wipe the leaves and stems of the orchid with the resulting foam. At the end, treat the culture with copper sulphate or another fungicide. It is required that fungicides do not fall on the ground.

Violet disease control methods

Mealybug on violets appears for the following reasons:

• movement of pests from newly acquired crops to old ones;
• use of pest-infested land;
• excessive fertilization with nitrogen;
• lack of moisture.

Pour the flowerpots with boiling water or a bleach solution. Treat all the cultures standing nearby on the windowsill. In addition, wipe the shelves and window sills with bleach and alcohol. All this is required to be done by wearing disposable gloves, it is better to burn them then, and then wash your hands with soap and water. Spray plants with Aktellik, pouring 2 ml into 1 liter of water. Then do it again a week later.

You can water the earth in a flowerpot with Aktara's solution by adding 1.4 g to 2 liters clean water. Then sprinkle the violet itself. Then wait 1 month and repeat everything again. Or apply Phosphamide, it enters the culture in solution, and after that the insects sucking juices are poisoned and die. Wear a respirator to work with pesticides.

Pest prevention at home

Check regularly indoor flower. The mealybug is afraid high humidity and loves dry soil.

Properly care for the plant, cut off the yellowed and dried foliage. Rinse the plant regularly in the shower to wash the dust off the leaves.

Indoor flowers planted in beautiful and neat pots will be a wonderful decoration for any interior. That is why they are such frequent guests of our window sills. Some types of ornamental indoor plants bloom for a long time, which only enhances their aesthetic characteristics.

Sometimes troubles happen in the life of flower growers - their beloved green pets become covered with a whitish coating, wither away and soon die.

The appearance of a characteristic white bloom indicates that the plant is attacked by a mealybug. What provokes its appearance and how can it be dealt with? All lovers of home flowers need to know what a mealybug looks like in order to quickly respond to its appearance and start a fight.

Have questions?

Ask and receive helpful tips from professional gardeners and experienced summer residents.

Description of the pest

Outwardly, the mealybug is very similar to the common aphid. The size of the insect is sufficient to detect it with the naked eye. The body length of adults ranges from 3 to 7 mm. From above, these creatures seem to be sprinkled with flour - a special substance that protects them from drying out, because the worms do not have a solid chitinous apparatus.

It is noteworthy that the females and males of these insects differ significantly in external data. Females have an oval body that is covered with powdered wax. The females have many short legs and long antennae. Young mealybug larvae are very similar to females, but are much smaller.

Males are winged, insects that look like mosquitoes or crayons of annoying midges. They do not have mouthparts, so they do not feed on the leaves of the flowers and harm them.

It is not difficult to recognize the presence of a pest on plants, since the result of its vigorous activity on indoor flowers is the appearance of a specific cotton-like coating on the leaves. It is in this "fluffy mass" that female mealybugs lay their eggs. The bottom female is able to create a clutch of 500-600 eggs. Such fecundity of the insect ensures its rapid spread to neighboring plants.

Usually it is not difficult to find worms on plants - they are located in the axils of foliage, on stems and petioles.

What plants are affected?

This pest cannot be called very picky, because it can affect a wide variety of home flowers. In addition, there are several varieties of this pest. The worm attacks many citrus crops, such as grapefruit, tangerine, orange, citron and calamondin.

This type of mealybug is called citrus. Females reach 4 mm in length and live 3 months, have a light pink body covered with a whitish coating. Males are beige with transparent wings and live only 2-4 days.

Grapebug often infects both outdoor grapes and ornamental varieties of this plant growing in pots on windowsills.

Also, the mealybug can infect cacti and hibiscus, monstera and ficus, as well as dracaena. He does not ignore violets with azaleas, anthuriums with gerberas.

How to deal with mealybugs on indoor plants:

Now you can start processing the plant with a soapy solution with the addition of alcohol. It is very easy to prepare it. You need to take ordinary laundry soap, grate it on a fine grater. You will need one teaspoon of grated soap, which should be dissolved in 30-50 ml hot water.

Then the resulting solution is diluted to a volume of 1 liter cold water and 15 ml of medical alcohol is poured into it. Next, you need to spray the aerial parts of the flowers, while covering the soil. After a day, the flower must be washed with warm running water. After three days, the treatment must be repeated.

You can also use calendula tincture for pest control. You just need to moisten a small piece of gauze in the tincture and wipe the affected areas with it. Repeat the treatment 2-3 times a week. For the entire period of treatment, the plant should be moved to a shaded place so that the sun's rays do not fall on it.

If the signs of pest damage are very numerous and extensive, you need to act quickly and decisively, using special chemicals. The most effective and commonly used agents include: Akarin, Aktara, Inta-Vir, Vertimek, Bankol, Tanrek, Extra and Fitoverm. With a strong infection of indoor flowers, it will not be easy to get rid of the pest very quickly. The choice of insecticide should be made on an individual basis.

It is recommended to start treatment with Aktara. It is a powerful modern insecticide that has a systemic effect. Inta-Vir and Confidor also have a similar effect. All of these drugs are relatively safe for humans, but still, if possible, it is better to carry out the treatment on fresh air to minimize risks.

Have you ever noticed on your house plants white, as if sprinkled with flour, insects with many legs and long antennae? If so, it's time to sound the alarm - your green pet has been attacked mealybugs(or hairy louse, as they say), one of the most dangerous insect pests.

Signs of a mealybug infection

In order to accurately recognize the mealybug, carefully examine the flower. Here are the main symptoms:

• the plant is covered with a white bloom and, as it were, sprinkled with flour
• on leaves, shoots or buds - sticky mucus, the so-called honeydew or honeydew
• all parts of the plant are covered with insects with an oval body white color
• the flower looks lethargic, drooping, the leaves lose turgor

What does a mealybug look like

Mealybugs (Pseudococcidae) come from the family of hemipterans or arthropods, the superfamily of mealybugs.

Insects have quite a few subspecies, and there are both viviparous insects and mealybugs that lay eggs. All of them are united by common outward signs, and the appearance of pests varies depending on age and sex. So, for example, females and males differ significantly from each other. The female mealybug is an insect with an oval-shaped body covered with white bloom, many short legs and long, thread-like antennae. The size of the female varies from three to five millimeters, depending on the species. The larva (nymph) looks about the same as the female, but is smaller. Male mealybugs differ significantly from females: they are winged insects that look like mosquitoes or flies. Males do not harm the plant, since they do not feed on it, males do not have mouthparts.

[!] In backyard and agriculture The mealybug is also one of the most widespread and hard-to-remove insect pests. The main objects of insect attack are - fruit bushes(currant, gooseberry, sea buckthorn) and rosaceous (hawthorn, wild rose, rose).

Causes of the appearance of the mealybug

It is impossible to unequivocally answer the question: where do mealybugs come from? There are several reasons, and all of them are associated with improper care and maintenance of the plant:

1. Errors associated with watering: waterlogging or, conversely, excessive drying of the soil

2. Errors related to temperature regime, air humidity and illumination of the plant location: too low temperature, insufficient air humidity, a small amount of natural light.

3. Errors associated with general maintenance and hygiene procedures: lack of periodic inspection of the plant, untimely removal of dead buds, leaves and shoots, lack of water procedures e.g. soul, for a plant.

4. Ignoring the quarantine of newly acquired plants.

Mealybug attacks are especially susceptible to various palm trees, cacti, citrus fruits, ivy and ferns.

Mealybug species

There are about two thousand species of mealybugs in the world, living mainly in countries with a warm and humid climate. Fortunately, only a few species of mealybug have chosen the territory of Russia. Let's look at them in more detail.

seaside mealybug(Pseudococcus affinis) is the most common species of mealybug. Females and males are significantly different from each other. Males are small flying insects that move from plant to plant without harming it. The females are quite large (up to 4 mm long), the legs are well developed, and the body is covered with a white or white-pink bloom. Throughout their lives, the females of the coastal mealybug lay their eggs in the so-called egg sacs and carefully hide them in hard-to-reach places: in the axils of the leaves, between the shoots and even, in the presence of a sloughed trunk, in the cracks of the bark. The larvae hatched from the egg are small yellowish insects. Unlike females, there is no plaque on the body of the larva. Approximately one month after hatching, adult larvae begin to fully feed on the plant and, accordingly, gradually destroy it.

Bristly mealybug(Pseudococcus longispinus) looks about the same as the seaside one, but differs in slightly smaller sizes (the body length of the female is about 3 mm.). This species of mealybug is viviparous, females do not lay eggs. Bristly mealybugs prefer to stray into large groups and hide in inaccessible places on the plant. Pests can live and feed even on root bulbs, hiding behind bulb scales.

grape mealybug(Pseudococcus citri) in its own way appearance similar to both seaside and bristly worms. Like the seaside, the grape worm is oviparous - the larvae hatch from the eggs. The method of settling a colony on a plant is similar to the previous species.

citrus mealybug(Pseudococcus calceolariae). Adult females reach up to 4 mm. in length, the body is light Pink colour covered with white coating.

root bug(Rhizoecus falcifer) - females are white, body length is about 2 mm. This species is distinguished by the fact that it prefers to live and feed on the roots of the plant, without neglecting, however, the aerial part, leaves, shoots, buds. An excellent environment for the development of the root bug is loose and dry soil, as a result of which, cacti grown in just such a substrate are especially susceptible to attacks by the root bug.

Comstock mealybug(Pseudococcus comstocki) - an insect reaching 5 mm. in length. Almost never found in the area modern Russia, but it can still be seen in some areas Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Preventive measures

In order for your home plant not infected with a mealybug, it is necessary to periodically carry out prophylaxis, which includes:

• Careful inspection of the plant. Remember that insect pests can skillfully hide, for example, on the back of a plant leaf, in young shoots, unopened buds and other hard-to-reach places.
• Timely removal of dried parts of the plant: dry branches, leaves and buds are very attractive to the mealybug. Remove them in time, do not leave insects a chance to find a comfortable shelter.
• Water activities such as timely and sufficient watering, occasional showers or leaf washing. The mealybug does not like a wet environment, preferring to settle in dry areas. That is why periodically rinsing the plant and moistening the soil is so important. It is important not to overdo it, because many other insect pests, such as podura, on the contrary, prefer a humid environment.
• quarantine measures. Each new plant that enters your home must be placed on quarantine: temporarily isolate it from other flowers and carry out preventive treatment with universal preparations. You can read more about quarantine in.

If, despite all the prevention, the mealybug still appeared on your green pet, start a merciless fight with it as soon as possible. If the worm colony is not yet large, try more gentle (folk) methods first. But, if the mealybug settled on the plant in large numbers, without modern chemicals, unfortunately, is no longer possible.

Mealybug - how to fight

Folk methods of dealing with mealybugs

Is there enough a large number of recipes for pest control, consisting of homemade ingredients. Let's look at some of them:

1. Soap solution. It is best to use green soap to prepare the solution, if this is not possible, the usual solid, liquid or household soap will do. To prepare the solution, stir 15 gr. solid or 15 ml. liquid soap in a liter of water. Spray the plant with the resulting preparation at least three times at weekly intervals, washing off the solution a day after each treatment. To enhance the effect, you can add 1-2 tablespoons of alcohol or vodka to the resulting mixture.

2. Tinctures medicinal herbs. Crushed powder of calendula or horsetail (sold in pharmacies), brew with boiling water, cool and process the plant. Recommended proportions - 100 gr. calendula (horsetail) per 1 liter. water.

3. Olive oil with water. A way that is gentle enough for the plant is to mix 2 tbsp. spoons olive oil and a liter of water and apply a solution from a spray bottle. After about one to two hours, wash off the emulsion.

4. Garlic infusion. Take 5-6 garlic cloves per liter of water. Crush the garlic, pour boiling water over it and let it brew for four hours. Filter the resulting mixture and, using a brush or a soft cloth, apply to the trunk, shoots and leaves.

5. Tincture of orange and lemon peel. Pour boiling water over orange and lemon peels in a ratio of 30-50 gr. zest per liter of water, let it brew for a day and process the plant from a spray bottle.

6. In the fight against the root worm, the treatment of the roots of the plant helps a lot. hot water. Remove the flower from the pot, shake off the roots from the ground and place in a large pot of hot water (about 55 ° C) so that the water covers only the roots, without affecting the above-ground part. Keep the plant in the pot for at least 15 minutes, then dry the roots and transplant into a new container with fresh substrate.

Mealybug chemicals

Currently, a large number of preparations are being produced specifically for the control of insect pests, many of which are well known to gardeners and lovers of domestic plants. In the destruction of mealybugs, the following insecticides have proven themselves well:

• Aktara
• Actellik
• Fitoverm
• Confidor Extra
• Bi-58
• Iskra Golden
• Upload

When using chemicals, carefully study the instructions, which prescribe the necessary dosages and method of application. It is important to follow the manufacturer's instructions and recommendations exactly.

[!] Some drugs, for example Actellik, are highly toxic and can threaten the health of people and animals. Therefore, it is very important to follow all the recommended precautions: carry out the treatment with rubber gloves and on outdoors. Do not allow children and animals to come into contact with the treated plant!

Pay attention to the importance of repeating the treatment after 7-10 days. The fact is that almost all chemicals destroy only adults of the mealybug and hatched larvae; they do not affect egg-laying. If re-treatment is ignored, a new generation of insects that have emerged from eggs will attack the plant again after a while.

The mealybug or, according to the aptly popular name, the hairy louse, is a close relative of another hard-to-remove pest - the well-known scale insect. Like her, it is a sucking insect that damages both garden and indoor plants. Scientists attribute them to the family of Hemiptera. And although outwardly they bear little resemblance to each other, the methods of dealing with them are largely similar.

To understand how to deal with a mealybug, you first need to get to know him biological features. No war on pests will be successful if you do not take into account their lifestyle, feeding methods and reproduction opportunities.

The hairy louse got its name from the powdery coating that covers the insect and the white waxy secretions where the female lays her eggs. Thanks to this protection, the masonry is not damaged by water, although the insect itself is afraid of it. This circumstance greatly complicates the fight against the pest. So much so that sometimes it is better to throw away an affected plant than to try to clean it, risking infecting other, healthy specimens.

Mealybug species

There are more than two thousand species of mealybugs in the world, most of which live in the tropics. In European countries, there are only a little more than three hundred of them. And even less on the territory of the former Soviet Union: bristly, grape, seaside, citrus and Comstock mealybug.

bristly bug (Pseudococcus longispinus) reaches a size of 3.5 mm. This is the length of an adult female, males are much smaller. The body shape of this species of mealybug is elongated-oval, the color can be orange or pinkish with an obligatory white coating. Both females and males are very mobile - the legs of the insect are well developed and allow it to quickly move from one plant to another. Only females feed. Males are much rarer and do not bring much harm. The female bristleworm does not lay eggs - they are viviparous.

Bristly bugs live on the undersides of leaves, in the axils and on the tops of tender young shoots. They can settle on bulbs. Affected leaves and shoots turn yellow and lag behind in development. At bulbous plants scales dry up, under which pests climb.

Unlike bristly, Grape mealybug (Pseudococcus citri) oviparous. Females have a body of a wide oval shape, yellow or pink, covered with a powdery coating characteristic of this insect species. The larvae hatched from the eggs immediately spread to the nearest plants, settling along the veins of the leaves and on young shoots. With a strong defeat, they can form huge colonies that quickly suck out cell juices its host, which leads to wilting and death of the plant.

seaside worm (Pseudococcus affinis) is considered one of the most common. Adult females reach a length of 4 mm with a body width of up to 2.5 mm. Greyish-pink in color with a white waxy coating. The males of this mealybug are much smaller and have wings that allow them to move through the air throughout the summer. The eggs of the female seaside mealybug are laid in white egg sacs, consisting of fluffy cobweb secretions. If desired, they are not difficult to find in various secluded places: inside twisted leaves, in cracked bark, on branching branches. The larvae of the mealybug are small and mobile, yellowish in color and completely without white bloom. They are transferred very quickly: on the fur of animals, on the hands and clothes of a person, and simply by the wind. Like adult insects, into which these babies will turn in a month, they suck out the juices of plants, causing their oppression and death.

Comstock mealybug (Pseudococcus comstocki) is a rather large insect, up to 0.5 cm long. Its homeland is East Asia from where it was introduced to other countries. At times Soviet Union this dangerous pest was considered a quarantine object, both internal and external. Its limited foci are still often found in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, certain regions of the Transcaucasus and in the south of Kazakhstan. In warm climates, it reproduces very quickly - it is able to give three generations a year. Winters usually in the ground. It lays its eggs in cracks in the bark and in the soil, where it settles for the winter. One clutch can contain up to 600 eggs. The larvae appear from April and immediately begin to feed on the leaves and shoots of plants. Sometimes even tree trunks, perennial tubers and roots are affected. They quickly spread along with the fruits, are carried by water and wind, infected planting material.

Features of defeat mealybug

Detect defeat various types mealybug is not so difficult. As a rule, all of them are clearly visible on the surface of plants. They like to huddle in colonies on stems, petioles and leaf axils, and especially on the underside of the leaf. The appearance of any worm is accompanied by white discharge, resembling cotton balls, of which there can be so many that the plants stand as if in fluff. It is on this basis that one can easily determine which pest is to be fought.

The worms feed on the juices of leaves, young shoots, buds. Their vital activity strongly inhibits the growth of infected plants, deforming the shoots, causing the ovaries and leaves to fall off. Perhaps even the appearance of cracks in the bark and the drying of entire branches. BUT citrus mealybug (Pseudococcus calceolariae) additionally affects the roots of trees. In addition, females secrete litter - a sweet and sticky liquid, the so-called honeydew, on which a sooty fungus quickly settles, heavily polluting branches and leaves.

More often than others, grapes, fuchsias, palm trees, amaryllis, camellias, oleanders, monsteras and all citrus plants become victims of hairy lice. They do not disdain even cacti and Kalanchoe. It is much easier to prevent their mass reproduction than to fight pests for a long time.

Prevention of the appearance of a mealybug

The very first of the preventive measures against the mealybug is a regular and thorough inspection of all plants. It is especially important to carry it out in the off-season.

When examining, it must be borne in mind that the pest does not tolerate moisture, preferring to live in dry places. Therefore, the timely removal of dried leaves is a mandatory event that should be done constantly.

It helps to fight the resettlement of the mealybug and regular washing of the leaves - the pest practically does not linger on such plants.

In addition, we must remember that these pests are very fond of breeding in soil rich in nitrogen. Its excess in the substrate of indoor plants increases the likelihood of infection several times.

How to deal with a pest?

Mild mealybug infestations can be dealt with relatively quickly. It is usually enough to clean the plant with a cotton swab or a soft brush dipped in diluted soap. After removing pests and their white secretions, it is necessary to spray green soap, infusion of tobacco or garlic, repeating it three times with an interval of one week. A good result is also obtained from treatment with alcohol or tincture of calendulapurchased at a pharmacy.

Instead of repeated spraying, it is permissible to remove pests with a cotton swab or paper towel dipped in one of these preparations. Both that and another after the end of the procedure must be immediately destroyed - in order to avoid the spread of surviving insects.

From folk remedies , which are easy to prepare at home, the following can be recommended for spraying:

1. Soap-alcohol mixture:

Crushed soap - 1 teaspoon;
- vodka - 2 tablespoons;
- water - 1 liter.

Vodka can be replaced with one teaspoon of pure alcohol. Dissolve the soap in a small amount of hot water, add up to a liter and add vodka or alcohol. Spray the whole plant with the resulting composition, excluding its contact with the substrate. After a day, be sure to wash off using warm water. Repeat after three or four days.

2. Garlic solution:

Garlic - 25 grams;
- water - 1 liter.

Mash the garlic and pour boiling water over it. Let it brew for six hours, then strain and apply for spraying.

3. Tincture orange peels: pour a small amount of dry or fresh crusts with hot water and leave for two to three days. Spray at intervals of several days.

Chemicals to fight the worm

If the defeat of the mealybug is severe, washing and removing the pests by hand is no longer enough. Chemical treatments will have to be applied. Since the worm is a sucking insect, contact and combined action preparations will be the most effective in dealing with it.

1. Aktara- a popular insecticide with intestinal contact action. The active substance is thiamethoxam.

2. Actellik- organophosphorus non-systemic insectoacaricide. Active substance- pyrimiphos-methyl. The drug is highly toxic and not suitable for residential use.

3. Bankol- contact-intestinal insecticide. Its active ingredient is bensultap.

4. Biotlin- contact-intestinal insecticide. It is based on a rather dangerous substance - imidacloprid.

5. Vertimek- non-systemic insectoacaricide of biological origin. The active substance is abamectin.

6. Spark "Double Effect"- a preparation based on pyrethroids, which are considered not dangerous for warm-blooded animals and humans. Contains cypermethrin and permethrin. It has an intestinal-contact effect.

7. Calypso- a systemic drug belonging to the class of chlornicotinyls. It has both a contact and a pronounced intestinal effect.

8. Confidor-Extra- a systemic drug based on imidacloprid.

9. tanrec- a broad-spectrum drug based on imidacloprid.

10. Fitoverm- biological insectoacaricide of intestinal and contact action. The main ingredient is aversectin.

11. Admiral- hormonal insecticide of contact-intestinal action. The main substance is pyriproxyfen.

From purely biological agents against mealybugs, you can use Lepidocide.