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Evil Genius

Pest Control Management

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Hi Guys, heres the thing: I just realized that some of my cacti developed Root Mealies. I think the cause for this was that i used a very sandy soil which dried out completely over the winter. When i took the plants out of the pots, i realized that the soil almost looked like cement and i guess that root mealies liked that.

So far so good, now i have a pretty large collection and that makes this pretty hard to control. I need disease-free cacti and im pretty positive to kill em all. And with em i mean the bugs not the cacti. :lol:

If nothing else helps, i´ll treat the whole collection with Pyrethrum. But it would be pretty important to know if it causes cancer or not. I mean, i know its toxic. Thats not the problem because i am very careful handling that shit but i would really be concerned having a cancerogen in my cactus soil for a long time. Sometimes you just cant help but breathing a little bit of soil in and if that happens, it shouldnt wreck my lung. If theres no pesticide that doesnt cause cancer, i rather dont treat and use the organic and less efficient methods.

And this leads me to a few questions:

1. What should i do with the infested pots? Im pretty broke all the time and buying new pots is not that cheap. As long as they are still in the small black quadrangular pots, its not a problem as they come pretty cheap. But the bigger ones are about 1 euro a piece and it would be pretty bad if i had to throw them away once they had some root mealies in it.

2. Atm i clean them in an vinegar/hydrogen peroxyd solution (like 1,5%) and desinfect them in a 3% hydrogen peroxid solution afterwards. I know the concentration is very low but the stuff is kinda exy too. Is that enough? If not, which concentrations would you suggest?

3. I also perform the procedure mentioned above with the infested plants. Same Question...is that enough? If not, what should i do to get the whole collection clean this summer. I already started to divide between healthy plants and sick plants.

4. What can i use to desinfect the material i work with. I mean the crates and the rest that comes in contact with the plants. Can i used methanol to desinfect pots? Its cheap but i know that there are some additional chemcials added to keep people from drinking it. What if traces from that chemicals come in contact with my edible crop plants?

I know this is a little bit tricky but i´d really appreciate if someone could help me to get this under control because i want my plants to look the best they can look. thanks. bye Eg

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`

Edited by Magicdirt

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I'm resigned to living with root mealies for as long as I grow cactus.

943797956_de5b5eb626_o.jpg

943797970_57585e16ec_o.jpg

I wish I could be more helpful.

~Michael~

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I'm resigned to living with root mealies for as long as I grow cactus.

I wish I could be more helpful.

~Michael~

 

looks like fungus.

If it is than it is better to use fungicide.

I used Fludioxonil (brand name Maxim) for cacties (small seedlings),

seems it does not affect their growth.

But it seems a bug.

http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/MealyBugs

Some people just recommend tossing the plant and the soil as well if you have root mealies. Various treatments have been tried with only short-term help but imidacloprid, a treatment that many people recommend for sucking and crawling insects, has been used very successfully. It works as a contact and a systemic and lasts from 6 to 9 months. It is sold under the name Marathon in the United States and Provado in the U.K. For over the counter this is the active ingredient in Bayer's Tree & Shrub Insect Control. The recommended rate is 2 to 3 oz. to a gal. of water dilution for that product. This product can be used for mealy bugs found in the leaves or neck of the bulbs too. (See next paragraph.) But it is recommended that it be alternated with other products so that mealy bugs will not become resistant with repeated us.

but seems phosphororganics is better

http://cactiguide.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=121136&sid=ae8dbb743c1caa1fcc5305b27f5bc8b3

Malathion has a much broader kill spectrum than Inidacloprid. Imidacloprid is strictly insects, and definitely not spider mites. Malathion kills spider mites but its been around long enough that many of them are resistant to it. Malathion also kills headlice so spray your kids too

Edited by BBGONE

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Nope, not a fungus, just saome sort of bi-product of the root mealies You can actually see the insect in the second photo.

~Michael~

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Alright, thanks for the Info about the acidified vinegar, MagicDirt. This could really do the trick and its not that expensive. I know its some nasty shit because i once accidentially cooked some fries in it when i was a teen. Its was the beginning of my cooking abilities and if i would have eaten it, probably also the end. :)

Michael, it seriously helps me to hear that other experienced growers have that problem too. It really does. Everytime i find root mealies in my pots, i think about the nice heathy looking cacti you sometimes share pics of and feel like the worst cactus grower in the world. :lol: At least, i feel better now, knowing that a healthy cactus can cope with the root mealies. I always suspect them to be the reason a cactus doesnt flower.

I think the combination of the acidified vinegar with peroxide will throw them back as much as the cacti need to grow healthy. Plus i think the pyrethrum is pretty safe. I also need to screen the plants very carefully in order to sort out the infected ones. This might prevent the seedlings from getting infected. At least most of em.

Thanks for the help, guys. I really appreciate it. bye Eg

Edited by Evil Genius

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From what little I know (oh so little), I think your best bet would be nicotine. You can use tobacco leaves, and put them into the soil as a longer-term semi-preventative measure. I would not recommend concentrated nicotine sprays or powders, or more importantly, a lack of care when dealing with those. If you spill a nicotine concentrate on your skin - you are dead. But you can drench your cacti soil with a tobacco tea (make sure they have had a good drink before to minimize any alkaloid absorption [should be minimal anyway] and wear gloves and goggles at least), and it should kill the bugs. It'll probably kill worms too, so you might want to try and get more worms later. Good luck - but I hope you can instead rely on skill instead. ;)

Edited by bluntmuffin

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Does anyone have direct experience with diatomaceous earth as a preventative?

I note that there's a thread up again about it, and I have heard of it used for soil protection on a number of occasions, but I don't think I've ever seen a first-hand account.

I'm especially curious to know if there are soil types that help to keep DE working, and if there are soil types that render it ineffective.

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Nope, not a fungus, just saome sort of bi-product of the root mealies You can actually see the insect in the second photo.

~Michael~

 

Then Imidacloprid will do the trick on them

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imidacloprid

Uses

The most widely used applications for imidacloprid in California are pest control in structures, turf pest control, grape growing, and head and leaf lettuce growing. Other widespread crop uses are rice, grains/cereals including corn (maize), potatoes, vegetables, sugar beets, fruit, cotton, and hops. Target insects include sucking insects (e.g., aphids, whiteflies, leafhoppers and planthoppers, thrips, scales, mealybugs, bugs, psyllids, and phylloxera), beetles (e.g., longhorn beetles, leaf beetles, Colorado potato beetles, rice water-weevils, wireworms, grubs, and flea beetles), and others (e.g., lepidopterous leafminers, some diptera, termites, locusts, and fleas).

As an insecticide spray, it is used on a wide variety of agricultural crops, ornamentals, and turf. It is also marketed for termite control, for flea control on pets, and for household cockroach control.

There are a whole lot of insecticides

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insecticide

imidacloprid is a nicotinoide (acts like nicotine), longer lasting, systemic, and has about the same toxicity.

Pyrethroids (like Permethrin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permethrin)

also can be effective, but more bugs have resistence to them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrethroid

Bedbugs have been a problem for humans since biblical times. Up until the 1950s, they were almost completely wiped out due to the use of DDT. After DDT was banned, pyrethroids became more commonly used against bed bugs; as a result, as of 2010 a super strain of bedbugs has evolved nerve cell mutations impervious to pyrethroids. This has caused a bed bug pandemic due to ineffective treatment methods.

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Michael, it seriously helps me to hear that other experienced growers have that problem too. It really does. Everytime i find root mealies in my pots, i think about the nice heathy looking cacti you sometimes share pics of and feel like the worst cactus grower in the world. :lol: At least, i feel better now, knowing that a healthy cactus can cope with the root mealies. I always suspect them to be the reason a cactus doesnt flower.

 

E.G., I might get a bit of stunted growth on plants in smaller containers, but once they get a bigger pot size the problem seems to lessen. I've had them rampant in my collection for years, if not close to two decades, and have probably shared a few. I've learned to live with them, and as long as I'm not worried about the amount of growth in a season they can live happily. Clearly though, they don't effect the aesthetics of the plants column, but I can't say anything about mealies causing plants not to flower. I don't suspect they would, but then again, I can't get mine to flower due to my location. I think mine don't bloom because I have them go completely dormant indoor and they don't sync up with the seasons well enough.

~Michael~

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Just brought these out of the garage this morning, and see, just fine...

5643894542_683e0cb3a6_o.jpg

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~Michael~

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Out of interest - what do you fertilize with Michael?

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I'm a complete simpleton about the actual care of these plants. No particularly special soil mix or ferts. The picture below is my soil, with the addition of some extra perlite and a few nice sized scoops of the local loam soil. I try and fertilize at least once a month with regular strength Miracle Grow. I generally just neglect them.

5040438370_6f31aced7e_o.jpg

~Michael~

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Nice pics, Michael. I just love the way you´ve arranged you collection optically. Especially the ceramic pots and the fact that you dont chop your plants in tiny little cuttings to get a few more plants. Very lovely.

In this moment, im in the process of bringing my plants in the garden too. But seems my neighbor is burning some car tires or some similar nasty shit and thats why i´m making an internet break.

About the flowering, well. If i should make a flyer and marketing slogan that describes my cacti, it should read "Eg, not flowering cacti since 1998" :lol: I assume it had to do with a mix of poor soil and too few fertilizers. I was always rtoo paranoid to use anything that even looked like a chemical and thats why many plants just didnt grew as they should. Now i changed that and all of them are growing great. Only problem are the root mealies but im sure i´ll be able to reduce them dramatically with the vinegar.

Edited by Evil Genius

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Well the organics your soil contains make a very good ecosystem. But, I think the nitrogen ratio your plants are getting might be partly behind the lack of early flowers. When plants find they have a lot of nitrogen, they generally focus on green growth (leaves and stems). And if they never run out of nitrogen (or at least don't get to a point where nitrogen's rare), it takes them a long time to focus on their other priorities (roots and flowers [and maybe spines and alkaloids]). A higher phosphorus and potassium ratio should help with root growth, cell wall thickness, immune system and hopefully flowering. Also depending on how much rain/water your plants get (presumably a bit more watering because of the terracotta pot's increased evaporation rate) - the soil micronutrients can quickly leach out of the soil too. Supposedly cacti use a lot more micronutrients than leafy plants, and it might help flowering to mix some trace elements in with your fertilizing.

Using inorganic (i.e. mineral based) fertilizers solely is bad for the soil ecosystem (makes it inhospitable for micro-organisms). Just as humans have a bacteria ecosystem living on and inside themselves - and we're healthy when it's in balance - but if too many of these benign bacteria are destroyed (bad diet, too much antibacterial soap, wanton antibiotics, etc), it leaves an opening for malicious bacteria to come and dominate.

It would be much better for your soil to use organic fertilizers for your monthly top-dress, and only occasionally using soluble inorganic fertilizers as a supplement. Apparently too much nitrogen fertilizer even weakens the plant's immune system and makes it more prone to insect attack.

After doing some reading, I found out that my plant with a limestone chip mulch probably is way too high pH. And apparently this pH being too high is locking out nutrients in the soil, and that's why it's weak.

And lastly, you have some amazing plants, especially in that second photo. :D

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clarified extract of neem oil, (70% clarified hydrophobic extract of Neem Oil)

works perfectly for me to control these pests

eliminating them is next to impossible due to the environmental vectors

but control is easy

just periodically use the extract in water and provide it to the plants

try it on one or two well infested pots and then check it a week later

i've never had a problem with it

do not use neem oil, only the extract

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Mmmmh, thanks Archaea! I only tried neem once in my early days and that was probably the problem. The powder didnt really get into sultion with the water and ended up rotting in my pots for weeks. It was a pretty nasty experience but i´m sure the rooot mealies thought the same. :puke:

Theres some very nice info in here...this turned out to be very instructive. :worship:

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Does anyone have direct experience with diatomaceous earth as a preventative?

I note that there's a thread up again about it, and I have heard of it used for soil protection on a number of occasions, but I don't think I've ever seen a first-hand account.

I'm especially curious to know if there are soil types that help to keep DE working, and if there are soil types that render it ineffective.

 

I've been trialing a 1 - 3mm diatomite as 20% of a media along with ungraded river sand, loam, compost, deco granite, some with limestone, some without & yes i have had a couple of root mealy infestations in those pots along with a random assortment of others.

The attacks seem more related to how rare the plant is or how attached the grower is to it than the media.

I did note a lower incidence of fungal problems in the pots with diatomite but that could be because the organic component is only about 10%ish so its about half that of my standard C&S mixes.

Thus far the only success i've had exterminating root mealys apart from fumigating has been to dunk the entire pot up to the rim in a solution of an insecticide & wetting agent for 10 min then remove to drain, then 12hr later water the crap out of the pot to dilute the residual insecticide.

Plz not that this treatment isn't tolerated well by a lot of the lime loving cacti.

Edited by shortly

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Thus far the only success i've had exterminating root mealys apart from fumigating has been to dunk the entire pot up to the rim in a solution of an insecticide & wetting agent for 10 min then remove to drain, then 12hr later water the crap out of the pot to dilute the residual insecticide.

Plz not that this treatment isn't tolerated well by a lot of the lime loving cacti.

 

I'v read other forums on how they treat those root mealys and about their successes.

The key is (the same as you stated) without insecticide it is not probable to cope succesfuly with mealybugs (except for incineration of plants).

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Anyone have experience with Lime-Sulphur?

Descovered an old bottle in the shelf I baught for our pear tree.

I have been spraying my bridegii monstrose with a light solution to see if those sap suckers or whatever causes those brown skin damage can be controlled.

I see articles mentioning root mealies and lime sulphur, lime sulphur is alkaline opposed to sulphur dust wich is acidic.

I have tried spraying some seedlings with the stuff and they havn't responded negatively yet. Maybe this stuff could be a all in one soluiton, fungicide, insecticide and algicide?

Allso the heat damage mentioned, is that only when it's mixed with dormant oils or neem oil? I wanna see if I can help some of my red rot lophs with it, to try and controll the rust,snails, rat's etc?

This was the last season I leave loph's in the rain for summer.

Edited by George

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httx://www.alexanderwild.com/Ants/Natural-History/Insect-Symbionts/9403634_Xwp6v/2/630211210_uNR2k#630211210_uNR2k

You could try having a strict ant control schedule. If the mealies have been the result of ants farming them then if you target the source they should go away.

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Just found this good ol' thread.

Wondering if anybody has ever tried the Cryptolaemus montrouzieri beatle as biological control...they seem to think it'll work quite well on mealys. http://www.bugcentral.com.au/products/Cryptolaemus.pdf

Apparently soaking the rootball in hot (but not too hot) water also kills them off quite effectively:

The Hot Water Drench

This technique, as the name implies, uses a “Hot” water drench and is suggested by the Dept. of Entomology, University of Hawaii and it states: “most insects on or in flowers, foliage and roots, including ants, foliar and root aphids, armored scales, soft scales, foliar and root mealybugs and whiteflies are killed at 120° F (49 C) from 5 to 12 minutes (disinfestation treatment)”.

I tried this method out on a clematis and it did indeed instantly kill the root mealybugs. I can happily report that the thick shoelace roots of my plant were not negatively affected (i.e. scalded). If you are worried that you are going to cook your plant’s roots, the water would have to reach the boiling point (approximately 212° F) and be applied for 3 to 5 minutes for this to occur. Just make sure the water does not to exceed 120° F and you will be fine.

Edited by gtarman

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I've nailed an aphid plague by drowning the pot for a day or so and placing some sand over the top of the pot when it came out, the plant wasn't a a cacti but a similar tactic may work for mealies! Likewise, I've scarified a cacti by soaking it in a diluted solution of Yates mite soap and forgetting about it for over 24 hours, but the plant has bounced back and is growing well now. Needless to say, mealies on that one were most probably wiped off the face of the planet. Sometimes I throw some DE into my soil mix, but not always, and the DE itself is a very fine particulate (hold your breath) has an expiry date on it, so not sure how that works!

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