Insecticide

[gerald]

Yes but with cacti especially there are so many nooks & crannies where mealies hide that it's pretty much impossible for a product like SBPI to work effectively.

Unless you get every single one, including eggs, they will just breed and appear again.

[gerald]

If you have serious fungus and/or insect problems and are serious about eradicating them, go on a PA1 pesticide spraying course.

You will then have the the freedom to use professional products.

How else are nurseries able to grow such good specimens? It's not by accident

[Pattock]

Yes but with cacti especially there are so many nooks & crannies where mealies hide that it's pretty much impossible for a product like SBPI to work effectively.

Unless you get every single one, including eggs, they will just breed and appear again.

You don't say that you have actually tried the two applications 24 hours apart. I assume you have, as you are dismissing the possibility of it working? They do suggest weekly or fortnightly applications afterwards to catch the next generation for full eradication.

[Phil_SK]

I would dismiss the possibility of a non-systemic insecticide working [=eradicating the pest] - simply because I know I could not apply it with total coverage in my greenhouse. That isn't to say that it can't help to keep down the numbers (I've used both soft soap and washing-up liquid to do this and it's been really useful) nor that it couldn't eradicate mealy bug in a smaller collection with plants that could be completely covered.

[BasG]

I have not use an insecticide that uses Flupyradifurone as active ingredient. I found it last week in the garden centre and looked for information.

Here is a Bayer document about Flupyradifurone (Technical-Information-SIVANTO.pdf). Page 4 mentions that Flupyradifurone is under examination for mealybugs. Page 24 has a section "Recommendations for use" where the active ingredient is "very effective against ... mealybugs, ...". The table on page 25 mentions cactus and mealybugs as pest and an "application rate per treatment"

My local garden centre has three products that mention Flupyradifurone as active ingredient. One is the ready-to-use-spray that Phil mentions, the other is a pill version. The third version is a concentrate where 50ml concentrate gives 11 liter for spraying. None of the package labels mentions mealybugs as treatment, I have not read the leaflet in the carton box or the fold-away label on the spray.

The product name is "Sanium", website in Dutch: protect-garden.nl. The pills are named "Sanium stick"

Provanto Ultimate contains Deltamethrin as active ingredient, according to this page.

[Pattock]

"very effective against ... mealybugs, ...". The table on page 25 mentions cactus and mealybugs as pest and an "application rate per treatment"

That leaflet states that it is very effective against "selected" mealybugs depending on rate and species.

Only effective on leafy cacti, as it is specified as a foliar application.

[gerald]

You don't say that you have actually tried the two applications 24 hours apart. I assume you have, as you are dismissing the possibility of it working? They do suggest weekly or fortnightly applications afterwards to catch the next generation for full eradication.

I am dismissing it because I know for a fact that there is no way a simple spray will reach down into the meristem area of a cactus covered in wool, hairs & spines. The same for many other areas of a cactus that are inaccessible for sprays eg the tight crevices where an offset joins the parent. And these are the very areas that pests like mealy bugs, spider mites etc hide.

It's simply not possible, unless you drench the plant - a spray physically cannot work.

They may work fine on leaves and normal plants - but not cacti.

[Tina]

Isn't SBPI just soapy water & a splash of feed so a quick fix for the mealies & plants but not a solution.

We do have a really good zoom talk coming up so you could get your questions ready for Thomas brand aka the 'bug man', who might make all our bugs problems seem like a distant dream, Ok a bit far fetched but it would be nice

[MatDz]

Isn't SBPI just soapy water & a splash of feed

I don't have the bottle with me now, but it certainly causes moderately (un)pleasant tingling when not rinsed quickly enough from the skin.

[Tina]

Couple more years of collecting and your skin will be impervious to sensations like that