Pests on succulents hard to clean up? A drop of vinegar is enough to keep aphids away
Aphids are the most common crop pests. Herbaceous flowers and woody flowers alike suffer from aphid damage, and the succulent Senecio rowleyanus (string of pearls) is especially prone to aphids. Aphids, also known as honey bugs or greasy bugs, mostly belong to the family Aphididae in the order Homoptera, and are piercing-sucking mouthpart pests. They often gather in clusters on leaves, tender stems, flower buds, terminal buds and other parts, piercing and sucking sap, which makes leaves shrivel, curl and become deformed, and in severe cases causes branches and leaves to wither or even the whole plant to die. The honeydew secreted by aphids can also trigger sooty mold and viral diseases and attract ants and other pests.
The most common pests on succulents are aphids, scale insects and the like, most of which harm succulents in the Crassulaceae and Asteraceae families. They often suck the sap from the tender parts of the plant, causing the plant to grow weak, and their secretions also attract ant damage. If a normally growing succulent suddenly turns yellow and shrivels, then look closely to see whether pests or diseases have appeared; pests and diseases such as aphids are very easy to spot. Aphids also often appear on the flower stalks of succulents; they are relatively small, have wings, can fly, and are nearly transparent in color.
If there are only a few of them, you can use tweezers or a cotton swab to kill the pests. Aphids have a very strong reproductive capacity, and the number of generations they produce varies considerably depending on species, climate and nutritional conditions. If there are a large number of them, you can mix vinegar and clean water at a 1:1 ratio and stir them together evenly, then rinse the succulent with the diluted solution.
As for scale insects, the scope of damage is very broad. They often harm succulents with tightly packed leaves, such as Agave and Haworthia, sucking the sap from stems and leaves, causing the plant to grow poorly and, in severe cases, to wither and die. Their peak period comes earlier than that of red spider mites, and they often have already multiplied in large numbers in early spring. But there is a point in which their damage is also easy to control: they tend to be concentrated on only a few plants. Sometimes one plant is covered with scale insects while a neighboring plant does not have a single one.
Scale insects are not without methods of control either. If there are relatively few of them, you can remove them with a bristle brush. In addition, you can also spray with a 800-1000 times dilution of Supracide, and mixing a certain amount of carbofuran into the potting soil has a preventive effect, but the efficacy only lasts 3 months.
Disinfecting alcohol can be used to eliminate scale insects. With a concentration of 75% or above, dipping an appropriate amount of alcohol and repeatedly wiping the affected areas can remove scale insects. As for tools, you can try a writing brush or a brush. If the leaves are too densely packed, directly pour alcohol over the seriously affected leaf areas, then observe for a few days; if scale insects appear again, continue using alcohol.
As for physiological diseases of succulents, caused by harsh growing conditions such as intense sunlight and scorching, severely insufficient light, sudden low temperatures and long-term lack of water, which cause scorching and browning of the stem and leaf epidermis, leggy growth of the growing points, frost damage to some tissues, and shriveling of the tips, the most fundamental measure is to start by improving the cultivation conditions.
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