I Have Mealies

[grandmapenguin]

I have the dreaded Mealies (sic).
My question is the Photos ONline I see they look white.
Mine are brown and not moving I have treated with Safer Soap dinks and all.

Should I just pop them outdoors for the rest of the summer
then washand treat and repot when I bring them back in
right now I am getting ready to leave for a few weeks so I hate to infest all my other plants.

[Emma Grey]

I'm no expert, but if the bugs are brown and aren't moving it sounds more like scale to me.

Here's a thread about treating scale/mealies.

I hope it helps.

[plantloverlisa]

Chances are they are in more plants than you know. If they were mine I would spray everyone that is in the same room as affected plant.

[11Orchid126]

I agree with Emma Grey as to them possibly being scale. Scale and mealies multiply with alarming speed! They suck the life out of your plants. As Lisa says, treat all your plants while they're still manageable. You have no clue what a really bad infection looks like. Treat them with a systemic insecticide like Bayer's Advanced Rose and Flower systemic. The systemic will go all through the plants' tissue, not just on the surface. Treat them again as soon as you get back.

[koshki]

Yeah, sounds like scale to me.

Mealy bugs look like powder sugar-coated space ships!

I HATE scale. Absolutely hate it.

[PaphMadMan]

Scale or mealies either one, I agree with plantloverlisa that you should assume that every plant in that room is already in the early stages of infestation. Especially since you will be away for a while and not able to monitor the plants daily and do alcohol swabbing etc. you need to consider a systemic treatment. Mealies spread like the plague, and scale is only slightly slower. Good luck.

[Leafmite]

Has anyone ever noticed that some plants are magnets for certain pests, that pests infest these plants and basically leave other plants alone? I haven't had much problem with my orchids because I seem to have some of these plant magnets--scale:bay laurel, mealies: citrus, jasmines, bird of paradise, spider mite: plumaria, aphids:hibiscus. Every year, it is the same and the problem becomes apparent in February. This year, I used my rose systemic and treated all the non-edibles (won't be making jasmine or hibiscus tea anytime soon) but I know I'll be spending quite a few hours each week battling the scale on my bay laurel and citrus plants with cotton balls, swabs and alcohol. I get one or two of these pests, rarely, on other plants. Just curious if anyone else has seen this,
Leafmite

[orchidea]

Oh boy, do I get afids on my hibiscus!!!!................
I am planing to try tobaco next year. So far I was able to get somewhat successful with soap. My aspins are infected. I can't treat them as they are very high, so the little buggers are spreading to other plants.....

It does sound like scale to me. I have a granulated systemic that I put into medium when I see bugs on my chids. They hide there too. The plant gets a good spray with soap, sometimes ones a week untill I don't see any signs of bugs there. Only when I see them come back I use systemic oh Physan20 on the leaves.