Cryptolaemus Montrouzieri – bought these little guys to help out with this awful infestation that I've had no luck controlling. I decided, well, I have bugs in my house anyways, might as well try the ones that will eat the ones that are killing my plants. Dude they're the cutest thing ever! They immediately shove their cute little faces into the white cotton and have been ravaging these awful nests. Had to make sure the spiders were clear though cuz they ate my first batch that I bought. I feel bad I thought there was nothing there to eat them. But they've been pretty happy eating my problem 😁
by SkyeEve0
16 Comments
That’s awesome! And they ARE cute 😍 thanks for sharing the success story, I will have to save this to remember the strategy. Plus, I think I’d like to have some of those as pets anyways, they are too cute
What happens when they run out of bugs to eat though?
How do you buy them? Anyone know if they can be purchased and shipped in Canada?
I instantly throw out plants infested with mealy bugs they are so dangerous and invasive! I prefer to cut my losses early.
I’ve been thinking about these cuties, but I’m worried because I’ve used Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Brew and I’m not sure how long I should wait before introducing predatory insects.
I have a huge vivarium I built and have had a couple mealybug issues throughout the years. I’ve used these several times, but with limited success. I usually get about 20 of them, and they raze the initial population of mealybugs… But then the destroyers seemingly disappear overnight. I never understood it, my vivarium has a thriving healthy ecosystem and I would think these little guys would live longer than one single day. But the mealybugs always just come back because any remaining survivors just repopulate once the destroyers vanish.
Thank you my friends and I have ordered armies of cute genocide beetles.
anyone know how to get these bad girls in the US? or are our typical red and black lady”bugs” good enough?
Ive been thinking about doing this with lacewings because of aphids, those little bastards keep persisting.
I’m from the UK, and although the Australian ladybirds are awesome at devouring mealy bugs, they’ll also eat our native ladybirds too.
Our only saving grace is the Aussies don’t survive cold winters. Global warming brings milder winters and this could devastate the status quo if the Aussies go on the rampage.
By all means, have at it, just please use biological pest control cautiously for the sake of native species.
Just used these last week. By far the best beneficial insects I’ve used. I want to get another pack of 50 to make sure I’ve caught any stragglers, but I’m afraid they’ll all starve so I’m waiting a bit. Haven’t seen any mealy bounce back since releasing the first wave. Major bonus – they were wife approved after seeing how cute and effective they are.
I noticed I had scale on a plant while I was moving…. So I just put it outside and hoped for the best. The amount of other bugs that came through was amazing!! At first it was full of ants basically using the scale like farm animals… Then came the parasitic wasp… Then came the lady beetles… Then the weather changed and now my plant is totally back to normal. It’s awesome watching nature in action!!
These are so cool! I just watched the [Deep Look](https://www.kqed.org/science/1999284/save-the-grapes-enter-the-mealybug-destroyer-deep-look) video about them the other day.
Nom nom
EAT THEM ALLLLLLLLLLL
Neat