can Mealy Bugs swim?...

[JonNo]

Serious question!

Having found a Mealy Bug the size of the Ark Royal on one of my quarantined plants today, I'm mulling over what more I can do... One thought that has occurred is to stand the pot in a saucer then put that saucer in a larger saucer and fill the larger saucer with say soapy water to effectively act as a moat and stop wandering Mealy Bugs from getting to the pot - but of course this would only work if they can't swim?...

So, does anyone know please?

[FredG]

Having found a Mealy Bug the size of the Ark Royal

Exocet? (Other anti ship missiles are available)

Have you used a systemic? That should clear them if used as it says on the container.

[Tina]

Detergent will damage the waxy covering so will kill them, it would be really funny if they were in the water doing 'back stroke.
I have some huge mealie from/on an ELK plant I hadn't realised there were bigger species than the one's I normally saw, just treated an indoor adenium with systemic for RSM, spray and dose, a few weeks later & they are back.
I'm not allowed the M treatment indoors

[Paul D]

Yes, they can swim, fly and teleport
But the soap should sort them. Apart from the ones which made it over before the soap..

[jerryb23]

I found this monster on an epiphyllum stem over the weekend! The main body alone was at least one eighth of an inch long which you can judge from the main vein in the epiphyllum leaf.

My collection is relatively bug free but It seems to me that this is the time of year when they are migrating most (like flying ants, wasps etc) and looking for new hosts to infect, so extra vigilance is needed.

I think the culprit may be a couple of apple trees near the greenhouse on which I regularly find colonies in white fluff so they seem to be able to cover several metres.

[Tina]

Its a long held belief of forumites -

fly and teleport

[Stuart]

They can do front crawl.

Stuart

[JonNo]

Thanks all. It is indeed a mystery where they appear from... I've been using systemic all season (to the point where I have reached the maximum permitted number of treatments for this year) and SB weekly yet still they appear. Like you Jerry the one I found yesterday was at least an eight of an inch long, for a moment I thought it was a young woodlouse!

I will create "moats" with soapy water then and keep my fingers crossed that it keeps them out or, in the case of those already resident but invisible, keeps them in so at least they can't get from pot to pot... It wouldn't surprise me in the least though to see them doing backstroke or even synchronised swimming...

[Tina]

I heard of an echeveria grower that had all his staging feet in buckets of water so vine weevil couldn't climb up & get into his collection, apparently a massive collection of echeveria.

[FredG]

Unfortunately water baths don't stop the ones who skydive in from the vents