The "pesticides" I've been using have almost exclusively been insecticidal soaps. The only non-soap one I tried was at the suggestion of a horticulture professor. He's also the one that suggested replacing the soil, but only after 6 months of battling these annoying buggers. The plants are in full sun in a greenhouse window with the exception of 2 ferns that only like partial sun. They are sprayed with the soap every evening and then watered. I've been trying to only water lightly as Google also suggested heavily watered plants are more susceptible. Was this wrong? I haven't seen any bugs hours after spraying. After killing a bunch of them, I usually don't see any for a few days, then only a couple for a few days, then large clusters of them, it's about a week and a half cycle. Mind you, all of this is with spraying soap every day. I haven't tried q-tips yet, because I only heard about this when searching the forum this morning. I'm pretty sure the plants did die from the bugs because I see brown spots on my plants directly under mealybugs I've killed (and only under where there were bugs). Eventually, there's just too many brown spots. I am worried about them growing in wood grain. Most of my plants are resting on a wooden windowsill. I didn't want to spray the sill and risk warping the wood. If I spray, but wipe off quickly, will it still kill the bugs? Is there a better way to treat the wood?
