FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Thanks Matt!

Yeah the spider mite was quite large for a spider mite.. but it looked like one, and it freaked me out so I came running to my computer to ask FTC..

thanks for the info

when i was feeding my flytrap a cricket i saw this tiny(really tiny) white bug on my plants leaf when i poked it it jumped sorta like a cricket . is that a larve of a spring tail or something? thanks

Stuff arrived today.. I can just spray that solution all over the plants?

I gotta say, I could smell this stuff before I opened the box. It smells very bad... like a dumpster in an alley. lol.

Matt wrote:I use Avid miticide for that. If you search the forums for Avid and Stirrup M, you should find some posts by me about the product.

'spensive! I found some good helpful posts though, thanks.

Matt wrote:I didn't search for the post, but if you do an advanced search and look for posts by me with the words "avid miticide" you should find it. I posted a link to something that was fairly inexpensive but that claimed to be chemically equivalent to Avid.

Yes! I saw that post, and am very glad I found it. It seems as though a couple flytraps I picked up a week or so ago brought some friends home with it..

Thank you!

this forum helped me find out i had aphids, probably saved some of my plants. Thanks!

Hey just a couple of quick questions:

1) Does acephate work against scale and mealy bugs? I have a few on my plants that I can't seem to get rid of

2) I have a red spider mite problem - what is a common miticide that is available in canada that anyone knows about?

3) i don't normally use pesticides/insecticides, so is it just as simple as spraying them on the plants and then the plants/bugs absorb it?

Thanks for the help, I know they're really basic questions. Your help is much appreciated!

quatchi wrote:Does acephate work against scale and mealy bugs?

Yes, acephate works very well to eliminate scale and mealy bugs.

Are these aphids? (photo below)

They are killing my poor Drosera Adelae. I bought some Neem Oil yesterday and just sprayed my baby down this morning. I followed the instructions ... I hope I did the right thing. This is my first experience with pests.

How long does it take for the Neem to kill the aphids? Will I see them fall off the leaves dead?

Thanks for any info!
~Cheryl

It's a type of scale. They have appeared on my plants. This stuff works well:
http://www.greenlightco.com/products/neem-ii/
I got it on Amazon. It's not just just neem oil, there are other compounds too, so hopefully neem alone works just as well for you. It's not systemic, so you need to get all the surfaces of the plant. I've used it on my binata pretty liberally with no harm to the plant, and to get the ones around the roots I dilute it in some water 4:1 and pour that over the root ball.

They won't fall off, although I have seen some crawl away from the plant after spraying. You can pull them off with tweezers.

I've had worse luck with acephate on scale, at least that kind. It doesn't seem to work for long

Thanks! I picked up a different version of neem oil at the local Lowes store - it is an insecticide, fungicide & miticide - so hopefully whatever those little bugs are, it will get rid of them. I sprayed the plant on Tuesday. I do see some of the bugs leaving the plant & some are floating dead in the water container that the pot is sitting in. There are still lots of little bugs under the leaves - so I guess it's a wait & see game. I will spray again next week.

I have been reading about neem. It does not kill the bugs. It just makes them crazy & addle brained. They forget to eat & mate & eventually die off. So it takes longer to work than poison, but it is safer for the plant. So far my Adelae does not appear to be any worse off. There is a very small baby plant in the same pot, so I have isolated it by putting a small clear plastic cap over it to keep the bugs and neem off.

I didn't think it was scale - I googled images & it didn't really look anything like what I saw. But I really don't know anything about plant pests. They are definitely bugs of some type, I have seen them crawl, but their legs are too tiny to see. They look like little flat white seeds that move around. (?)

Thanks for your help & I will post an update after the creepy crawly crisis is over.

chaosatlanta wrote:Are these aphids? (photo below)

Those are mealy bugs. They have soft bodies covered with a waxy, hairy upper side that resists getting wet (including with spray poison). They are similar in damage potential to scale, which generally stays in one place on the plant and sucks the juices out, seriously damaging or killing the plant over the long term or in large colonies.

Both mealy bugs and scale like to hide in nooks and crevices and the underside of the leaves, or near the ground level in fresh, tender emerging leaves.

The best poison I've found for them is a systemic (it makes the plant poisonous from the inside), acephate, available in water soluble powder with 75% active ingredient (the acephate). It kills mealy bugs and virtually every other pest you are likely to encounter on Venus Flytraps or other carnivorous plants and does so quickly and effectively.

One note however. Drosera adelae often don't like to be sprayed with chemicals, including acephate, and may sulk for awhile, dry up the dew and stop growing for a time. D. adelae seems unusually sensitive to this, while acephate has no noticeable effect at all on Venus Flytraps, Sarracenia, Cephalotus and other carnivorous plants.