Cold turkey...

[iann]

You have a different problem, John, in that you are essentially dealing with a pest that is present in your environment and may sneak into the greenhouse at any time. I don't know if that means you should grow plants that attract the mealies so they don't move on to the cacti? Or eradicate anything that encourages the mealies so that there are fewer in your environment?

In England there are no wild mealies. Hence I still think the best approach is to eradicate them from the collection, which is relatively easy, and then don't introduce them again.

[anders]

Vic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How do you use the chili pepper/garlic extracts
> Anders?

I dilute it and apply it with a spray bottle. It makes me cough a lot, so I have to work on the user-friendliness too ...

My original idea was to make my epiphytic cacti less appetizing, as the pesticide consumption becomes large when these voluminous plants get attacked by mites. The only thing I have that eradicates mites is "Provado Plus", very efficient but expensive.

[rthr]

I have also experimented with using garlic extract to eliminate mealy bugs. Somebody gave me a bag of the stuff - very garlicy smelling powder, labelled as a bio-ecological product which targets sap-sucking bugs. The dosage is something like 1g of extract per litre of water. I used it in the spring on a couple of coryphanthas with very good results - the little critters don't like it at all. Still no sign of any return of the mealies on these plants, so it is effective, at least in the short-term. Like most insecticides, it is stinky though.

Catherine

[Vic]

Interesting Anders, I can see why it makes you cough, perhaps wearing a mask would be recommended. May give it a go one day.