The Mealybugs are BACK!

The Mealybugs:

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I thought I had finally gotten rid of them a few months ago, and I haven’t seen them since- until this morning. Luckily I found them on the one Jade plant that is pretty much quarantined already. It is one of the few plants that I have in my living room, and luckily my other vulnerable plants are all upstairs. After I discovered the little pests, I ran upstairs to get my weapon of choice: my Vanilla Mint mouthwash. Thank you, Listerine.

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Needless to say, the Mealybugs don’t like the minty freshness of Listerine as much as I do. As soon as it touches them, they turn an orangey brown color and shrivel up. I always make sure to wipe my Jade plant down with water after putting the mouthwash on it. Anyways, after I was convinced that I had found all of these little bugs, I tallied the final body count at 6. Not very many, and I’m sure there will be a few more that I missed showing up within the next week or so. But I am confident that my method works, and with a little persistence they will eventually all be goners.

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6 thoughts on “The Mealybugs are BACK!

  1. You guys are amaZING. I need help!!! I’m a native Texan, sittin here in northern Germany with horrible, sticky, white, marmellowy like things on my Hortensia (oh, what is the english name of the pretty plant that turns blue and pink?) and now my neighbors plants and roses are also infected? About the size of a pine nut. Any help?

  2. Thanks for the tip. We recently discovered these little pests on our Jade plant and I didn’t want them migrating to our 5 year old Yucca and our year old Dracaena plant.

    I’ve just tried this and lo and behold the little white sods turn a yellowish brown when they come into contact with the Listerine!

    I’ve seperated the affected plant and will inspect my others on a daily basis to make sure they’re clean.

    With some TLC, hopefully I’ll save our Jade plant!

    Thanks again.

  3. English name is Hydrangea. My mom has those.

    I just got a Jade plant and there are little white spots on the leaves. They were more to the center of the leaves and were not big, nor did they look like bugs. Little tiny. I wiped them off with some tissue and water. It looks like a disease or fungus of some sort. Not cottony at all, that I can tell.

  4. Thank you! I’ve been trying to figure out what these things are for a long time! I have a plant totally covered outside my home. I’m afraid it won’t make it!

  5. My wife just uses rubbing alcohol on them. The rubbing alcohol is also good for removing there little trails too. These things showed up on my lime tree after I put the tree in the garage for the winter.

  6. Hi,
    Can anyone help? I live in Eilat (a very hot, arid climate) and my garden is alive with mealy bugs. We have tried injecting the soil around with a pest control but to no avail. They are on everything from Hibiscus to succulents and in such numbers that the plants are being destroyed.
    HELP!

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