Little white BUGS

Discussion in 'HortForum' started by good2uto, Dec 10, 2003.

  1. good2uto

    good2uto Member

    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    IL
    I have a Jasmine plant and allot of the stems, by the leave are covered with a white furry bug with lots of legs with 2 long things I don’t know if it is the front or back, they look like dust about the size of a grain of rice and groves across their back, if you separate them it looks like as if I was pulling cotton apart. If I smash them they are sticky. They don’t move if you move them out of its place it will move then and very slow. If you wet them they turn gray. On the bottom of the they are gray as well, they lay on top of each other. please some one help me get rid of these nasty critters.
     
  2. jimmyq

    jimmyq Well-Known Member 10 Years

    Messages:
    2,345
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Metro Vancouver, BC, Canada.
    sounds like Mealy Bug to me, they look sort of like a small sow bug or pill bug and they like to hide in tufts of cottony fluff near the base of leaves and branches where they join together. Control can be difficult, try to look at the situation the plant is in, is it innapropriate for what it wants? How is the watering situation? Any environmental factors that could be adjusted to make the plant happier?
     
  3. Douglas Justice

    Douglas Justice Well-Known Member UBC Botanical Garden Forums Administrator Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout Maple Society 10 Years

    Messages:
    976
    Likes Received:
    59
    Location:
    Vancouver, Canada
    This would be an indoor jasmine, I assume.

    Mealybug are difficult to eradicate because they are beautifully adapted pests. They enjoy the warm, dry atmosphere of houses and have a wide host range, from mesophytes, like your jasmine or citrus, to xerophytes, such as cacti and other succulents. Mealybugs are successful in part because they often feed in dark corners and in the folds of plant tissues. They are easily spread, either by human handling or through plant to plant contact, but their main dispersal mechanism is the crawler stage of the life-cycle. Crawlers are extremely small and mobile and it is this stage that is usually missed when control measures are applied.

    Soap and dilute rubbing alcohol are the favoured treatment options for indoor gardeners. Both soap and alcohol dissolve the protective waxy coating of the adults. Dabbing adult mealybugs with alcohol on a cotton swab is moderately effective (and often therapeutic for the gardener), and frequent sprays of either can be effective treatment, but applications should be made to target both adults (to eliminate egg-laying females) and the immature crawler stage.

    See the following link to this integrated pest management site for more information and treatment options.
     
  4. good2uto

    good2uto Member

    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    IL
    thanx a MILL

    ya in the winter. I put them out on the deck in the summer.
    Again thanx a MILL.




     

Share This Page