Just found root mealies and completely freaking out. I don’t know if I can recover from this. I have about 350 plants (mostly Hoyas) and I m leaving to Europe next week. Anybody ever dealt with a large infestation and recovered? I haven’t checked all of my plants yet; will do the rest tomorrow. I m doing the root drenches with purecrop1…but honestly just want to cry and give up!
by NeatFilm2840
8 Comments
I was just reading some posts about root mealies in the hoya sub, and people were giving advice. I would post it in the hoya sub as well for more exposure.
Good luck, and I’m rooting for you! You got this!
Overthinking it. Keep doing what you are doing. Plants look fine.
I am so sorry! Had this happen too once in the past and ended up just using every kind of pesticide I could get my hands on and „disinfected“ the new soil in the oven by baking it.
If you are incredibly worried, there are soil predatory mites that might do the trick. Buy a bottle to apply to affected plants and a few sachets that are supposed to last 30 days as a preventative measure. Some companies charge an arm and a leg and others have them at pretty cheap pricing.
You can recover! Prioritize triage: isolate worst cases, bare-root rinse, trim mushy roots, repot in fresh mix, sticky traps. Drench + systemic (imidacloprid) before you leave, add soil predatory mites as backup. You’ve got this.
https://www.reddit.com/r/houseplants/s/WQ9darJvtI Maybe this tread could help? I also read about the Bonide Systemic Houseplant Insect Control and it’s supposed to work wonders. Hope this helps. 🫶🏻
Sounds like it’s time to move them all to semi-hydro setups for a bit. If you do this, you can pull the plants out of the LECA or pon and flood the material with isopropyl alcohol to kill the baddies. Then simply rinse through and replace the plants.
Check out what Arbico has to offer. With that many plants, you’re definitely going to need predatory mites or something intense.