Can anyone let me know how to rid my Clivia Miniata of this strange disease. It has little white puffs of wet looking white cotton candy balls on the leaves. If I touch them, they stick to my finger and will stretch out much like silk. Can my plant be saved? Thanks for any help
Sounds like mealybugs to me. (They're not usually wet-looking, in my experience, but the rest matches.) A picture would probably clinch the diagnosis.
Thanks, Digg.............I'll take a photo, and make an attempt at uploading it, post haste. Photo below Thank you
Sure looks like mealy bugs. They spread, so isolate that plant immediately. Get out the Isopropyl Alcohol and the Q-tips. Pour a little alcohol into a small dish, cup, or something - dip the Q-tip into the alcohol and wipe off all the white, sticky stuff. Go thru the whole plant, checking especially in the nooks and crannies. Keep it isolated and keep checking for at least a week for new outbreaks. You also might check any plants that were near-by. You could try spraying with Safer soap also, but I find the alcohol is target specific, and quicker.
Yup. Mealybugs. You'll want to wipe the leaves (and the nooks and crannies, as Barbara says) regularly for a few weeks. Neem oil is also helpful if you can find it, though in my experience sprays that contain "hydrophobic extract of neem oil" are less useful than the actual oil. (The actual oil will be brown. It smells horrible, you have to use it regularly over a long period of time, and if you apply it too concentrated, it often burns the leaves you're trying to save -- but it works.) Systemic pesticides (those taken up by the roots and spread throughout the plant, to make the whole plant poisonous) might also be useful, though they take longer to begin working, and they're more dangerous to you / your pets / your children than neem. A strong second to Barbara's advice to isolate the plant; mealybugs will readily walk from plant to plant, and it's possible to pick up eggs and transfer them to another plant if you touch several plants in a row, so keep the Clivia in a separate spot, and always wash your hands after touching it.
I did separate it when I first noticed it. I'll start the isopropyl treatment tomorrow. I actually have that on hand. It did get to my African Violet. Too late for that one. thanks to all
