Viewing post #1068404 by JB

WillC said:JB -

It sounds like you may have more than one kind of insect pest on your Carmelia and Gardenia. Their presence may be an indication that the plants are under stress for other reasons - improper light or watering, for example. Both are difficult plants to manage indoors.

Using alcohol swabs and wipes is not only exceedingly tedious, it is also ineffective. The juvenile forms of scale, mealybugs, aphids and spider mites are virtually invisible to the naked eye and they tend to hide in crevices where you cannot see or reach them with swabs. Hence, a very through spraying - drenching, really - is essential to effectively eradicate these pests. I recommend a solution of 5 parts water, 1 part alcohol and a squirt of liquid soap. But the key is to drench all leaf and stem surfaces until they are dripping wet. Yes, it is a messy task, but if you are really thorough, one treatment may be all that is necessary.

Great advice, thank you. I have given up with the alcohol swabs since as you said it seemed endless. I am using a soap base spray and am drenching it. Have done that two days in a row and I am still finding a few of them, not sure if they are alive or not. That is the camellia. The African Gardenia (not really a gardenia) was much easier. I did a good drenching on that because I was not sure what I was fighting on that one since I only saw a small web and it could have been a spider, so that one seems to be under control. Nothing showing at all.
I moved those plants but the camellia gets these the same each year and i think they are in the soil. I need to really clean up that soil next.