Fortunately, hoyas can handle the rubbing alcohol treatment! I have a big one (well, big for me, not compared to Lin's!) that has had mealies on & off for a year at least... it's hanging apart from my other plants, and when I notice the creepy crawlies have returned I spray it with 70% alcohol until it drips and rub it around all the surfaces my fingers can reach. Repeat a couple of times at 1-2 week intervals, and while I guess they're not totally gone at least they go into hiding.

With your hindu rope hoya, I wonder if you could make up a bucket of Neem oil solution (like a tablespoon or two in a gallon of warm water) and swish the stems/leaves around in that... don't know if Neem is as effective as rubbing alcohol, but... ?

Hey, that's not a bad idea - I was just considering an alcohol bath, but don't have enough [rubbing] alcohol to really try it. Neem, on the other hand, I have. Thanks, Jill!

LMK if it works, and I'll dunk my "problem child"

Will do!

Well, Jill, I completely messed that one up. We had been having such mild days - 50's-60's, 40's at night - that I thought I'd leave my hindu rope outside to kill of some of the infestation. And..... you guessed it, we had a freeze. I am so bummed, I had this plant for a while and it was a pretty nice specimen.

And, of course, that's not the end of the &#@(*&$@! mealy bugs. I can't believe it. I found them this morning on my prize Adenium and on some Lemon Verbena that I am overwintering. Everything in the house has gotten sprayed with 100% alcohol today, whether I see a mealy on it or not. I am on a rampage.

Please, anyone buying a plant from one of the big box stores, check it closely for small white fuzzies - and if you see them PUT THE PLANT DOWN -and run! I don't care if they're giving it away.

Sheryl, I'm sorry to hear they aren't gone. I lost my two bananas because of mealy bugs and the treatment.

I would recommend everyone inspect plants before buying. I've noticed an infestation at [big name hardware store] and I now refuse to buy from them. I'm sticking with the nursery this year.

What did you use, Ang? It's true that sometimes the cure is worse than the disease, huh?

A mixture of alcohol, dish soap, and water. Everything else did fine but the bananas died. I checked the corms too.

Well, nuts! Sorry to hear about the Hindu Rope and the bananas...

I'm trying to think if I ever used alcohol on my bananas, and I really think I did, not for mealies but for spider mites... have also used insecticidal soap... wonder if it was something in the dish soap? Not going to experiment though unless my bananas "catch" something! (I have 3 potted banana plants in the dining room this winter, looks sort of tropical-colonial with the 1930's dining set!)

Oh... and I have a recent story of woe with those dang mealies also... I was spraying alcohol on a couple of plants with scale and noticed a couple of mealy bugs on the hoya that has recurrant infestations... there was a chair right under it, so I thought, oh I'll just hop up quickly and take care of that, no need to go haul the stepstool over. Next thing I knew, my butt hit the floor, the chair went flying the other way, and I got some good bruises on my head and on one elbow! #&*$)&%*$ mealy bugs!

No more chairs for you. ONLY step stools

You bet. It was an impressive crash, and I got really lucky in not twisting anything or bonking my noggin more seriously. DH thought I'd dropped a box of pottery or something, so he was already out of his chair when he heard me call out, "I'm OK!... I think." Then he ran. LOL

I've found that killing flying male mealies helps keep numbers down. My houseplants are by windows and the males seem to think hiding on the window will save them, so I inspect the window each morning. They are also very easy to swat. They can be confused with gnats and I actually thought that was what they were. I was so ticked off because my watering has been great lately.

Flying male mealies???? EGADS, now I have something else to worry about!!!!

Yep, adult male mealies fly. The look less like a mealy and more like a little tiny fly or gnat.

I wonder if they're attracted to those yellow sticky traps.

So, I figured out why one of the infestations has been so tough to treat. I have it in one of the Exotic Angel hanging pots. The pot has a lip and it under the lip is little supports - and danged if there isn't a bunch of white fuzz under there. I didn't think they would live off of the plants, but evidently do.

My Hoya pubicalyx is coming into bloom again. The open flowers are up in the tree tops so too difficult to get a photo. But here's some of the lower ones still budding. In the first the peduncle is standing upright rather than hanging down as is normal.

Ooo - looking forward to the next set of these!

Hoya macgillivrayi




It took 3 1/2 years to bloom from a cutting. But worth it!