Hi everyone. I was recently gifted this jade plant and other houseplant (the striped plant behind it) from a friend; both share a pot. Within a few days of bringing them home, the jade plant developed this strange white material near the tops of its leaves. Nothing is moving, so no bugs (thankfully!!) but I’m otherwise uncertain as to what is wrong with it. I want to deal with it proactively because 1. I don’t want it to get worse, and 2. I’m afraid of it spreading to my other plants. I’m not certain but there may be a few white spots of similar material on the striped plant it shares a pot with.
The plant gets indirect sunlight and I’ve watered it about once a week, if that helps. Not sure on the type of soil since I received it as a gift.
Thank you for your guidance!
by onedaycowboy
15 Comments
Looks like either !mealybugs or !spidermites
Baby those are bugs, they are mealies. Best treatment is to spray them with straight rubbing alcohol and wipe them off, and then keep that up for a couple weeks doing it every 3-4 days. I’d also treat the plant that came with this one. Good luck
Also you are watering that plant way too often, squish the leaves before you water, if they are plump and firm you can hold off on watering. If they are squishy it’s time to water
Jades are pretty tough, mealies wont effect them much untill its a really bad infestation. Id wipe the plant down with alcohol and in a few weeks do it again.
These are 100% mealy bugs, like the other commentator said. Take an aggressive approach with them. Make sure your plants have their own saucers and don’t share, mealybug eggs can flow out of the soil because they’re so tiny and spread to other bugs of the saucer.
They’re one of them more manageable pegs to deal with, so don’t worry too much! But be thorough and clean all those little crevices between your jade plant.
Follow what other commenters have said for getting rid of the mealybugs. Going forward, this plant needs much more light (as much as it can get indoors – your brightest windowsill and/or a growlight, but make sure to acclimatise it slowly), and much less water (wait until the plant shows signs of thirst).
Of course move it far from any other plants and check the plants it has been sitting near.
Definitely mealy bugs like everyone else is saying, bad bugs don’t usually move a lot. A lot of times you won’t see them move at all because they just sit there eating the life out of your plant.
Check your other plants, mealy bugs spread, and it looks like the plant in the background of your pictures also has white spots on the leaves. Those can definitely be mealy bugs too.
Those are mealybugs! a scale insect like the kind you see on trees sometimes, except instead of hard armor these ones wear a waxy coating to protect them. They leave a sticky sap and nasty scarring when they feed
They LOVE cactus, euphorbia and succulents, orchids, and citrus! Adult females are immobile, but males and juvenile “crawlers” move slowly from plant to plant, but an entomology lesson probably isn’t what you’re here for!
To kill them you’ll need a cotton swab or q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol. Touch the mealies directly with the swab, manual removal is the only consistent method! Do this just about every day until you stop seeing mealybugs! thankfully it shouldnt take long, I’ve killed quite a few infestations in my time.
Is everybody on this sub having a secret mealybug conference
70% isopropanol spray and repeat every 3 days for 1 month.
You’ll be good to go.
If you don’t, it’s a slow death
Uh oh
Tbh l would get those out of my house until you get that infestation under control so it doesn’t spread to other plants. Anytime you get a new plant, it should be quarantined for atleast a week and treated for any potential bugs.