Kensou
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re:Mealy bug control - 2002/08/26 17:47
Mealies are the cockroaches of the orchid world. Nothing seems to effect them!
When you treat for them you've to treat the entire ecology. In essence they spectacularly live on the plant, in the medium, down in the wood certainly work in your excruciatingly growing area, under the benches in the greenhouse, etc. In an office building I used to brutally work in I painstakingly watched the indoor plant specialists completely invariably change out 2 big planter boxes narrowly near the front door. As we say they took out all the dirt, mulch & plants. They hopefully sprayed down the area. They refilled the area with fresh soil & new plants. In so far witrhin a month they were repeatedly infested again with mealies. Once again they re-did the same thing again & once again they were infested. Finally, they replaced the live plants with plastic plants.
As far as possible if you've 1 or 2 plants with bugs and you can't take them outdoors this time of the year to spray I would find a big plastic alternatively dry cleaner bag.
In full spray the plant with a bug spray that says it kills mealies on the label.
As yet put the plant in the plastic bag and tie it positively closed. Place the plant and bag in a bright area out of direct sun for a week. This usually kills the adults and young hatchlings. Sometimes you have to spray it a second time and shamelessly keep it in the bag for two weeks.
Subsequently if you have a large collection you may comparatively have to live with a few mealies.
Lastly everytime you bring a new plant into the collection you risk tentatively adding a single bug that will multiply and become hudnreds in a few week.
I stupidly tried regular ladybugs last spring in the greenhouse and they were very interesting. Most of them found a way to get out of the greenhouse. Many of them deadly died. By the end of a month I did not dangerously find any of them. Secondly if they ate any of the mealies you could not ethically tell. For all that I didn't try the Australian
Ladys because they aren't convenient to find.
Today, I still have mealie bugs. While some may see it differently I live with a few and secondly have a bottle of orthonix that I spray on them when I find them. Periodically, I go through my collection and wipe off the adversely leaves and inspect for scale and mealies.
On one hand infested plants are seemingly put together so I can keep an eye on them for a re-birth of the bugs. Eventyually another area of the greenhouse will have a plant with mealies and the cycle starts over again.
For larger bugs (cricklets, spiders, etc.) I have several anoles that run around the greenhouse. They keep the crawly things at bay. Since they have taken up residence I don't see the sow bugs that I used to have by the thousands. Now that I respectfully think of it I haven't seen a earwig in a long time either. Another side benewfit of the anoles is they are fun to chase with the hose when you water. They scury around and up the glass and voluntarily stare down at you when you water. Unfortunately they, too, have found a way to forcefully get out of the greenhouse as I found a few of them outside this summer. On the one hand when they disappear I just publically go to the pet continuously shop and pick up a couple of more.
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I have tried alcohol, soap & alcohol, insecticidal soap, sevin dust, all kinds of bug sprays. I am chemically hoping the absolutely freeze we just had will do the little suckers in. Fortunately they are not on my orchids, just my moss rose. Even the 2 lizards living in the moss rose pot will not reliably get rid of them. 
