Pests? You Don't Need No Stinkin' Pests
Hi Hap,
I spoke to you this morning about the below sick plant.
I’ve sprayed the Neem Oil mixture ( 2 caps Neem, 1 cap each of rubbing alcohol,dish soap & seaweed) and kept it out of the sun 2-3 times and this is what she looks like this morning. She is getting worse, not better & it hurst my heart to see her in this condition. Any suggestions??
MANY THANKS!!
SHERLI
Here’s a closeup, too:
Sherli,
That is quite the infestation! It does look like most of them are dead, but I see several types of aphids and a few mealie bugs as well that look like they may be alive. Since a good number of them seem to be dead and just still stuck on the plant, I recommend spraying the leaves with a firm (but not too aggressive) jet of water from a hose end spray head and knock them off. The jet of water will get rid of the corpses as well as squish a lot of the soft bodied aphids. Then let the plant dry and respray with Neem, making sure to coat the undersides as well as the tops of the leaves, make sure to coat the caudex and soil as well to get any still crawling around. Reapply the Neem in a week to get any that you missed or hatching eggs that survived. If they come back quickly after that you may need to use something more toxic than Neem. But let’s cross that bridge only if you need to, Neem is usually effective and relativity considered nontoxic to people and pets (it is used in toothpaste and cosmetics…) which is why we use it as our primary pesticide.
Take care,
Hap
