How to get rid of mealybugs? Cleverly use a cotton swab to solve it easily

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Images and text: Qingmeng

What do succulents fear most in summer? The first thing, of course, is mealybugs. The ones on the leaves are still manageable, but when they are in the leaf center, you poke down and your hand trembles, and it's over, you've crushed it. Without a year or two of natural metabolism, such an ugly leaf will remain forever, and as the leaf grows, the bigger it gets, the uglier it becomes. At this point, you need this 75% concentration alcohol.

Steps:

The alcohol is the kind in a very large bottle. Actually, like many succulent lovers, when it comes to using alcohol to spray mealybugs, at first I sprayed it on just like everyone else, but after careful observation I found the effect was not particularly good. The mealybug seems to have a protective layer on its surface; some dissolved after spraying, but some did not crawl or move around, the alcohol could not penetrate them, and they just stayed there. This incomplete method of killing mealybugs is not suitable. Also, mealybugs love to hide in the small gaps between dead leaves and leaves, and spraying cannot penetrate there. After going through years of the endless cycle of pots, soil, and succulents, I wasted a lot of alcohol, and I really felt the waste.

Cotton swabs are just the most ordinary kind, the ones you can casually buy at the supermarket.

First use: dip in alcohol to kill mealybugs. First you need to figure out where mealybugs like to hide. Places like the leaf center, dead leaves, dense gaps between leaves, and the undersides of leaves are their favorite habitats. As long as you find one mealybug, dip the cotton swab in alcohol, bring it over, and when the cotton swab touches it, apply a little pressure so the alcohol breaks through the mealybug's protective layer. The ones in the leaf center can also be easily dealt with, and you no longer have to worry about the leaf center being damaged.

Second use: clean up dead leaves. Cleaning up dead leaves in time improves ventilation and prevents black rot, prevents dead leaves from rotting and breeding bacteria, and prevents mealybugs from hiding. After dead leaves are cleaned up, the growth point is easily exposed and side shoots grow, which benefits succulents in every way with no harm. For large dead leaves, pull the leaf tip with your hand and they come off with one tug. For those hidden deep, you can use tweezers.

First dip in some alcohol, water also works; checking for mealybugs and cleaning dead leaves together, conveniently use alcohol. Touch it to a dead leaf, and the leaf is on the cotton swab; the dead leaf comes off easily.

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