Succulent pest infestations are contagious: one infected pot can harm ten, so do this to give the bugs no way to survive

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Editor / Succulent Plant Hub

Although growing succulents is a peaceful, wonderful thing, only when you grow them yourself do you realize there are always things you would rather not face, such as those pests and diseases...

No matter how beautiful a plant is, it cannot escape the trouble of pests and diseases. For meticulous succulent lovers, how can you just let pests and diseases run wild unchecked? It ruins our succulents' beauty too much! At the same time, it also causes harm to the succulents.

Under conditions of high temperature, high humidity and poor air circulation, bugs are more likely to breed and spread, mainly coming from the soil. At this time, you need to disinfect the potting soil or even replace it, and pay attention to good ventilation, light and suitable temperature, among which ventilation is especially important.

With the arrival of summer heat, many pests and diseases have begun their frequent mischief. Today Hui Zhang is going to single out these common pests and diseases one by one!

Culprit No. 1: Mealybugs

Succulent lovers should all know this bug: white and plump, seemingly with little fuzz. The moment you see it, you feel uncomfortable. They survive by sucking the plant's sap, causing poor growth and, in severe cases, withering and death.

At the same time, they also release a sticky liquid. If your succulent has strange stains, it is very likely left by mealybugs. This sticky liquid is also very deadly and easily causes diseases such as "sooty mold."

Mealybugs that fall to the ground can still crawl, and rather quickly. They can crawl from one succulent to a whole cluster, then take the opportunity to reproduce and produce a large wave of mealybugs.

1. When there are not many, remove them manually. You can scrape them off with a brush, or combine this with pruning by cutting off infested branches and leaves. They must be brushed clean, cut clean and burned together. Never throw them away carelessly. You can also pierce them directly with a toothpick or tweezers.

2. When there are many, you need specialized insecticide. According to the various stages of mealybug occurrence, spray during the peak nymph stage.

At this time most nymphs have just hatched, the body surface has not yet secreted wax, and the shell has not yet formed, so pesticide can still kill them easily. Spray once every 7-10 days, for 2-3 consecutive times.

Hui Zhang also collected some small methods to deal with mealybugs, but Hui Zhang has not tried them personally. Succulent lovers who have tried them can comment on them~

① Mix baijiu with water at a ratio of 1:2. When treating the pests, water the surface layer of the potting soil thoroughly. Mealybugs begin activity in spring when room temperature is 7°C. You can water once in mid-April, then about once every half month, for 4 consecutive times to see results.

② Use 50 milliliters of food vinegar (rice vinegar). Dip a small cotton ball into the vinegar until wet, then gently wipe the stems and leaves of the affected flowers and plants with the wet cotton ball to wipe away and kill the mealybugs.

③ Gently and repeatedly wipe the diseased plant with alcohol, and you can remove the mealybugs, and remove them very cleanly and thoroughly.

Culprit No. 2: Aphids

When they gather densely on succulents, they can truly drive people with trypophobia crazy!

Aphids are the fastest-reproducing insects. When nibbling on succulents, they also scatter some oil-like liquid that is especially sticky and will stick to the leaves along with various stains, making it hard to clean.

Most of them harm succulents in the Crassulaceae and Asteraceae families. They often suck the sap from the young tender parts of the plant, causing weakened growth, and their secretions also attract ant damage. Aphids can also often be found on succulent flower stalks, mostly attracted by nectar.

They are quite easy to spot. Those large patches of black or green are generally aphids.

1. If they are on the flower stalk, directly cut off the flower stalk and throw it away, then use a cotton swab dipped in water to clean the leaves.

2. For the rest, if there are few, you can capture and kill them manually, pinching each one you see. In the early stage of damage, spray with 80% dichlorvos emulsifiable concentrate at 1500 times dilution. Bayer imidacloprid from Germany can also be considered.

Culprit No. 3: Root mealybugs

Different from ordinary mealybugs, because under normal circumstances these bugs are invisible! They live almost entirely in the soil, surviving by sucking nutrients from the root system, then laying eggs and hatching. They are extremely hard to find. Only when the bugs have already exploded in number will they crawl out or flow out from the drainage hole of the pot.

Generally they can only be seen when repotting and changing soil, so this requires us to do various inspections and cleaning work when we newly buy succulents.

Their contagiousness is also terrifying. Adults will crawl out from the bottom of the pot and burrow into another pot

But the most terrifying thing is their eggs. During watering they can flow out of the pot. If they touch soil and are then mixed into other pots, they will soon explode collectively.

1. Change the soil for the succulent. In this case, it is not recommended to reuse the original soil, and the plant's root system also needs to be completely cleaned.

Then simply prune it, soak it in clean water for half an hour, then air-dry for 1-2 days. After it is completely dry, repot it, and the original pot also needs to be cleaned again.

2. If you find it troublesome, you can use medication. Currently the most effective medication is "Jie Bi Zhi," but medication cannot kill the eggs, also causes certain harm to the plant, and can cause secondary pollution to the soil. You need to weigh this yourself~

Culprit No. 4: Red spider mites

Red spider mites are small, very agile, and crawl quickly. They often gather in groups and chew the epidermal tissue of stems and leaves, causing yellow-brown scars or yellowing and falling off at the damaged areas. These scars never fade.

They reproduce quickly during dry periods. Spraying water on the leaf surface can inhibit the damage. Among affected flowers and plants, Cactaceae, Aizoaceae, Euphorbiaceae and Liliaceae are relatively common.

Generally, you can check whether there are spider webs on the back of the leaves, and also very small red/white/dark bugs. If there are, it is usually red spider mites.

You can reduce and avoid spread by increasing environmental humidity. In addition, you can use 40% dicofol at 1000-1500 times dilution to kill them, or abamectin.

Red spider mites easily develop resistance. Using one pesticide for a long time will reduce its effectiveness. Currently used pesticides include imidacloprid, nicotine, and carbofuran. Pyrethroid insecticides have very poor effect on them. Commercial insecticides such as Radar have little effect. The above medications are relatively easy to buy, but carbofuran is highly toxic and should be used with caution.

Succulent lovers can also use mosquito coils for sealed fumigation, 30-60 minutes each time.

PS: The homemade chili water method is simple. Just crush fresh chilies and garlic, then mix with water. But the effect is not as good as insecticide, so it is suitable for preventive use beforehand.

Culprit No. 5: Whiteflies

Whiteflies are not pink either, but white, with transparent wings bearing small white powdery matter. They have characteristics such as a wide host range, waxy body surface, overlapping generations, rapid reproduction, many transmission routes, and easy development of resistance to pesticides, making them very difficult to control.

Whiteflies cause leaves to yellow and fall off, while also inducing sooty mold. Large patches of ugly black powder appear on stems and leaves, directly affecting the plant's ornamental value.

In addition to improving environmental ventilation, in the early stage of occurrence you can spray with 40% omethoate emulsifiable concentrate at 1000-2000 times dilution. You can also spray with malathion at 500 times dilution or dimethoate mixed with dichlorvos at 1000 times dilution. Two days after spraying, use a strong water stream to wash away the dead insects together with the black powder.

Culprit No. 6: Fungus gnats

The larvae of fungus gnats chew the root system of succulents (wounds may cause infection, then rot) and chew the tender leaves of succulents. The worst part is that some sown seedlings are their favorite thing to feast on. Once they eat, they often eat them all up.

Long-term damp and dark environments are simply a perfect match. If the soil contains more humus (egg shells, tea leaves, unfermented organic fertilizer), then fungus gnats could not like it more. So we absolutely cannot let fungus gnats succeed!

The most effective way to treat fungus gnats is actually very simple: keep the growing environment dry and ventilated. In a slightly dry environment, the larvae will die in two or three days.

After covering the surface with some granular soil, you may feel there are fewer fungus gnats. In fact, this is also indirectly making the surface of your growing environment drier.

If you cannot ensure your growing environment is dry in a short time, you can consider physical control. Fungus gnats are phototactic, so you can use black light lamps or ordinary incandescent lamps to attract them, and place basins containing insecticidal liquid (imidacloprid, dimethoate, fenvalerate, etc.) under the lamps to trap and kill them.

You can also place sticky insect glue paper at places where fungus gnats are active and at windows they pass through, to trap and kill them.

As for chemical medications, there are mainly household pyrethroid insecticides. For the soil, you can use Huahushen drenching plus spraying the plant, or bury carbofuran in the soil. Medication has pros and cons, depending on the individual.

The prevention and control of succulent pests and diseases is mainly based on prevention. Keep the environment clean, and strictly inspect foreign succulents to prevent bringing pests and diseases into the home.

Pests and diseases are most likely to occur during seasonal transitions. In the three periods of early winter, early spring and before the plum rain, concentrated spraying in the greenhouse has twice the result with half the effort. Now the plum rain season is almost here, so get ready quickly!

Hurry and look at two beautiful pictures to relax. For this article Hui Zhang looked at bugs for a whole day, so you cannot let this effort go to waste~~ Of course, if succulent lovers have better suggestions, you are welcome to bring them up!

Today I am super excited, so holding my phone and trembling, I posted my maiden work. It is a small class on succulent black rot, so hurry over and take a look!

How is it? Do you think Hui Zhang is getting more and more trendy haha? Actually it is also because inserting short videos in the official account is not so convenient, and there is a limit on the number, so I want to share with you on Douyin~

Here, Hui Zhang strongly and shabbily asks all succulent lovers to favor my Douyin account~

*Some information in this article comes from the internet. If there is infringement, please contact Hui Zhang to delete it

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