Quit buggin' me!!

Bugs. Ick. Now, I am have never been the type to go running and screaming when I see I bug. In fact the only bugs that ever really elicited a reaction from me are Brown Recluse spiders or 'skeeters'. Then I met Fire Ants.... but really, the only people who like fire ants are Entomologists.

As a horticulture student, we learn to identify many types of pests through visual as well as symptomatic means. For instance, if your prize winning Gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides) has a black powdery substance we can make an educated guess that your plant has an insect infestation causing sooty mold. Sooty molds are Ascomycete fungi which grow on plant exudates and the sugary honeydew secreted by insects such as aphids, scales, the whitefly, and other insects which suck sap from their host plants. The name itself is descriptive, as sooty mold is a black, powdery coating adhering to the leaves of ornamental plants such as azaleas, gardenias, camellias, crepe myrtles, and laurels (Wikipedia).

In my Let’s Talk about Roses blog entry, I briefly discussed the Bayer product used to treat that on roses and other ornamentals. There is a product that can be used on trees and shrubs that has similar effects (Insect, Disease, and Mite Control). But I did not discuss the underlying cause of Sooty Mold. Bugs. As mentioned in the above Wikipedia quote, bugs that suck sap produce a secretion called honeydew. (Definitely NOT the same as the sweet green fruit as it is essentially bug poo.) Honeydew has a very high sugar content which is the perfect food for fungal spores. You can treat for the fungal infection but if you don’t get rid of the cause you will fight a never ending battle.

The bugs (I call them freeloaders) need to go. And trust me, those annoying freeloaders spread….fast. I noticed that a few of my houseplants were looking very droopy and wilted. I had watered and fertilized them several days before so I was confused. They looked as though they hadn’t been watered in a month. When I looked closely, I could see the telltale ­­fuzz of Mealybugs.

Mealybug (Hemiptera coccoidea) females feed on plant sap, normally in roots or other crevices, and in a few cases the bottoms of stored fruit. They attach themselves to the plant and secrete a powdery wax layer (therefore the name mealybug) used for protection while they suck the plant juices. The males on the other hand are short-lived as they do not feed at all as adults and only live to fertilize the females. Male citrus mealy bugs fly to the females and resemble fluffy gnats. Some species of mealybug lay their eggs in the same waxy layer used for protection in quantities of 50–100; other species are born directly from the female. (Wikipedia).

I had a severe mealybug infestation. Every indoor plant I own except my violets, Sansevieria, and Aglaonema. Doesn’t sound bad until I tell you that 26 of 35 plants were affected. I was mad. Mad at myself for not noticing but really mad at the bugs. They were hurting my lovely plants. I carted them outside and out came the Neem. Everyone got a full soaking on both the top and bottom sides of the foliage. I was leaving no leaf unturned because I didn’t want a single one of those buggers to survive. All it takes is one female with a clutch of eggs.

Update: It has been three weeks, I applied Neem once a week for two weeks. The mealybugs are gone and we do not have any other bugs at this time! Hip-hip-hooray!!