Awesome video. I deal with scale problems on my cattleyas every summer . I use the home made solution of alcohol, water and dish soap. With a soft toothbrush, I scrub the scale off the leaves and bulbs.
Brad, you are absolutely right that it's much harder to manage pests in a larger plant collection. I sure wished that I could in fact use acephate to eliminate scale and mealy bugs altogether instead of controlling it. I do live in a condo and it's tricky how I'd go about applying it. Thanks for the very informative video and hope to see more like this.
Always thankful for your videos as the sharing of your wisdom is priceless. You are the best teacher on UA-cam:-) I'm always watching and learning. Great contribution to life and living with these amazing creatures.
I enjoy your videos because you not only give facts but engage us with your views, opinions, stories and talking as though with friends. Thanks for sharing!
Bread thank you for doing the video I myself had a invasion of scale and might and short of throwing in a stick of dynamite I was about to lose my mind but now that you’ve given me some helpful hints I’ll become Mrs. sleuth and then I’ll become a serial bug killer
Great Brad, always interested in how you handle these situations and, anything you have to say to support what you do, your thinking behind your decisions or whatever you want to share :D Thanks! Always interesting! Anyway, you are so right! I JUST yesterday realized I had scale on a plant and I wasn't prepared! I actually use your water/alcohol/dish soap combo but they came back the next day and I realized I would probably need a systemic for this and I didn't have one and didn't know where to begin and here's your video. Oh well, in this case it was a succulent that I had no problem just chopping the head off of, haha... it was one of those where I've heard it will just grow back which is fine. Also, repotted since I like to do this, usually with new plants. p.s. I always think you get to the point pretty quickly actually! Thanks again. ;)
I’d love to know about bacteria and fungus too ! I had a friend unknowingly send me some succulents with powdery mildew . I’d love to know of a spray to protect the rest and prevent the PM from wiping out my collection 😊
Thank you for your video. I think you have helped me to diagnose what I have been fighting on my begonia. I have had this indoor begonia for over a year now and never had a problem with it before now, so: Question #1 - since it sits by itself in a bay window in my kitchen how did it get this pest? Is it airborne? Since I didn’t know what I had but knew something was wrong; the leaves had a sticky residual on them that showed in the sun light - I took some warm soapy water and a rag and carefully hand washed the tops and bottoms and stems of each leaf and stem and found what looked like round scabs that were either almost clear with a little bit of white to them or that were clearly visible round looking tannish color with a brown center. It took some doing but I finally got the leaves and stems cleaned off. Or so I thought. Question #2 - is what I have described scale? If not, do you or any of your followers have any idea what I have? Question #3 - I repeated the process because after a few days I saw evidence that my bug problem wasn’t gone (newbie mistake 🙃) only this time I also poured some soapy water into the pot thoroughly drenching it till water ran out the bottom; waited a few hours and then poured in more of my soapy water (1Tb of Dawn dish soap to a gallon of water) again until it ran out of the bottom. Was this ok to do? I was guessing and hoping it would help. I hope this won’t hurt the plant. I did this two days ago. Question #4 - if I am dealing with scale how long till I don’t see any more sticky residual that look like little clusters of clear shinny droplets reappearing? I’m imagining those are the eggs or very young scale? I washed all the leaves again last night till I couldn’t see any more clear dots. Finally, Question #5 - I want to drench the soil again but am concerned whether this was a good thing the first time. So, should I do it again? Should I make up a solution with the rubbing alcohol in it this time and if so with what percentage 1 or 3% since I have seen it both ways? Do I need to eventually drench the soil with just water to git rid of the soap in the soil once I’m sure the pest is eradicated? Again I’m not sure whether the soap in the soil is harmful to the plants roots. I know this is a lot, but I am thankful for your help should you have time to answer all these questions.
hi Brad - I have some Acephate so I was wondering what dilution do you use (how much product to water) & do you just spray the foliage or do you water the plant with it?
Thank you so much for taking the time to explain this to us. I really have a panic attack seeing any sort of critters on my orchids. Regarding the systemic, you just sprayed all the leaves with it both sides? Would it of been ok with just your homemade formulation? Also, do I have to worry about the bugs living in the roots? How often will you fo the treatment if you were not repotting? Thank you in advance.
Thanks Brad, I've been using Dish soap ( not blue Dawn .. ) and alcohol/ water, with good short term results. Things seem to come back, so I'll retry with your recipe, but what are your thoughts on neem oil?
This is such a helpful video Brad :-) definitely more vids like this :-) mealies and scales are such a pain on our plants, and I have had such a problem very recently with the wooly Aphid that look like mealies but they are Aphids and are much larger and they seem to be indestructible LOL! I am the same as you when it comes to not really liking to use chemicals and I prefer to use natural ways too and mostly use neem oil and spend hours picking them off especially the scales, but I have had to use a product called provado on the ones I can't reach or pick off that I water into the soil and it acts systemically, but it doesn't seem to be touching the wooly Aphids, but I will keep an eye out for the acephate sulphate, I am not sure if its available in the insecticide products here in Ireland :-) thanks a million for haring Brad and sending heaps of love and happy growing from Ireland XXXXX
Hi Brad, Love your videos. I recently purchased some cattleya seedlings, and to my disappointment yesterday, I found one with these crawly white tiny worm-like things on a leave. They did not look like mealybugs as they were more long in shape and did not have the fuzziness to them. Then, after inspecting the rest of my seedlings, I found an adult pest crawling on a leave..still teenie-tiny and beetle-like. Kindof reddy black in color but definately is not the red spider-mites I've seen before; (this same seedling has tiny black, tar-like dots also on leaves that come off when wiped with a cloth). After going online and doing much searching, I still cannot figure out what pests I have and therefore, I'm confused about what to treat these plants with. So far, I've isolated both of them and picked off the pests that were seen. Any thoughts to what these may be? Any advice is much appreciated.
Try and google thirps, they have different life stage so be sure to look at different images of that and they leave tiny tar dots aka poop on the leaves. Same product will work on them but they are nasty and can fly when adults so they spread quickly
Good info. on a situation every indoor plant grower will have to deal with at some point. While the use of toxic chemicals should be kept to a minimum sometimes the only viable alternative is to discard your prized infested plants. You've been lucky that mites, mealies and aphids haven't simply drifted in from outside very often as is commonly the case in greenhouses. Have you done a video on how to make sure that new acquisitions don't introduce pest and diseases into your collection / greenhouse ? ~ While use of toxic chemicals is unpleasant, controversial and undesirable it is also sometimes a necessity. Their use should be dealt with in a clear, detailed and forthright manner that actually helps limit their use, not promote it.
I’m learning chemistry and I’ve read you have to be careful mixing alcohol with such substance like ammonia which some dish soaps have. That is my understanding tho 😀, good video tho mate
Helpful to the scales. But no content in targeting the other two types of sucking bugs unless there are two other separate video to complete the topic.
Title reads how to kill scale, mealy bugs and aphids. I have mealy bugs. I'm assuming this method also kills mealy bugs because its in the title even though you did not reference mealy bugs once during the video.
Awesome video. I deal with scale problems on my cattleyas every summer . I use the home made solution of alcohol, water and dish soap. With a soft toothbrush, I scrub the scale off the leaves and bulbs.
thanks Blanca
Love your videos. Even my kid passes by while I'm watching and gets super interested. We have learned a bunch.
awesome That makes me happy!
Brad, you are absolutely right that it's much harder to manage pests in a larger plant collection. I sure wished that I could in fact use acephate to eliminate scale and mealy bugs altogether instead of controlling it. I do live in a condo and it's tricky how I'd go about applying it.
Thanks for the very informative video and hope to see more like this.
Always thankful for your videos as the sharing of your wisdom is priceless. You are the best teacher on UA-cam:-) I'm always watching and learning. Great contribution to life and living with these amazing creatures.
This was excellent Brad! Keep up the good work! Love all of your videos!
Thank you Tracy!
I enjoy your videos because you not only give facts but engage us with your views, opinions, stories and talking as though with friends. Thanks for sharing!
I am talking with friends Janice :) Thanks for watching
Love the video Brad. Thanks for helping keep the bad stuff at bay! Always love being prepared just in case.
Great information. I have terrible scale problems every winter.
thanks!
Thanks for sharing this video. ☺️
Excellent video!!!!!
Bread thank you for doing the video I myself had a invasion of scale and might and short of throwing in a stick of dynamite I was about to lose my mind but now that you’ve given me some helpful hints I’ll become Mrs. sleuth and then I’ll become a serial bug killer
Great Brad, always interested in how you handle these situations and, anything you have to say to support what you do, your thinking behind your decisions or whatever you want to share :D Thanks! Always interesting!
Anyway, you are so right! I JUST yesterday realized I had scale on a plant and I wasn't prepared! I actually use your water/alcohol/dish soap combo but they came back the next day and I realized I would probably need a systemic for this and I didn't have one and didn't know where to begin and here's your video. Oh well, in this case it was a succulent that I had no problem just chopping the head off of, haha... it was one of those where I've heard it will just grow back which is fine. Also, repotted since I like to do this, usually with new plants.
p.s. I always think you get to the point pretty quickly actually! Thanks again. ;)
haha Thanks, I like small talk in my videos :)
Excellent thank you
Thanks Brad my problem with scales and aphids is solved.
Thank you for the good news on mealy bugs. Well done
Stanhopea tigrina? Looking fantastic does it bloom often
Great man, I was using the dish soap without the alcohol, so now, I'll add that too. Thank you
Did you notice a difference with the addition of the alcohol?
Thanks very much for the info. Thanks for sharing!
your welcome Foozil
I know this is an old video Brad, but thank you. What r your thoughts on neem oil for bug treatments?
Super informative! Would love to know how you deal with bacterial and fungus too :)
I’d love to know about bacteria and fungus too ! I had a friend unknowingly send me some succulents with powdery mildew . I’d love to know of a spray to protect the rest and prevent the PM from wiping out my collection 😊
No ! Please do more videos like this because you can help us do it safe and correctly and responsibly. Thank you like always great video .
thank you Ellofez
Thank you for your video. I think you have helped me to diagnose what I have been fighting on my begonia. I have had this indoor begonia for over a year now and never had a problem with it before now, so:
Question #1 - since it sits by itself in a bay window in my kitchen how did it get this pest? Is it airborne? Since I didn’t know what I had but knew something was wrong; the leaves had a sticky residual on them that showed in the sun light - I took some warm soapy water and a rag and carefully hand washed the tops and bottoms and stems of each leaf and stem and found what looked like round scabs that were either almost clear with a little bit of white to them or that were clearly visible round looking tannish color with a brown center. It took some doing but I finally got the leaves and stems cleaned off. Or so I thought.
Question #2 - is what I have described scale? If not, do you or any of your followers have any idea what I have?
Question #3 - I repeated the process because after a few days I saw evidence that my bug problem wasn’t gone (newbie mistake 🙃) only this time I also poured some soapy water into the pot thoroughly drenching it till water ran out the bottom; waited a few hours and then poured in more of my soapy water (1Tb of Dawn dish soap to a gallon of water) again until it ran out of the bottom. Was this ok to do? I was guessing and hoping it would help. I hope this won’t hurt the plant. I did this two days ago.
Question #4 - if I am dealing with scale how long till I don’t see any more sticky residual that look like little clusters of clear shinny droplets reappearing? I’m imagining those are the eggs or very young scale? I washed all the leaves again last night till I couldn’t see any more clear dots. Finally,
Question #5 - I want to drench the soil again but am concerned whether this was a good thing the first time. So, should I do it again? Should I make up a solution with the rubbing alcohol in it this time and if so with what percentage 1 or 3% since I have seen it both ways? Do I need to eventually drench the soil with just water to git rid of the soap in the soil once I’m sure the pest is eradicated? Again I’m not sure whether the soap in the soil is harmful to the plants roots.
I know this is a lot, but I am thankful for your help should you have time to answer all these questions.
hi Brad - I have some Acephate so I was wondering what dilution do you use (how much product to water) & do you just spray the foliage or do you water the plant with it?
thank you very much for the valuable information very much needed.
your welcome Elizabeth
Thank you so much for taking the time to explain this to us. I really have a panic attack seeing any sort of critters on my orchids. Regarding the systemic, you just sprayed all the leaves with it both sides? Would it of been ok with just your homemade formulation? Also, do I have to worry about the bugs living in the roots? How often will you fo the treatment if you were not repotting? Thank you in advance.
So a systemic does not have to be absorbed through the roots, only sprayed?
Will this work for Carnivorous plants?
Thanks for the info!
your welcome
Thank you for the info I was wondering what it looked like
Good day Brad. Here in Canada, Acephate is hard to come by. Did you happen to get Acephate online or at a retailer?
Think this was great, thank you
Hi Brad i was hoping you could tell me what brand of insecticide has acephate in it, and is available in Canada?
Thanks Brad, I've been using Dish soap ( not blue Dawn .. ) and alcohol/ water, with good short term results. Things seem to come back, so I'll retry with your recipe, but what are your thoughts on neem oil?
This is such a helpful video Brad :-) definitely more vids like this :-) mealies and scales are such a pain on our plants, and I have had such a problem very recently with the wooly Aphid that look like mealies but they are Aphids and are much larger and they seem to be indestructible LOL! I am the same as you when it comes to not really liking to use chemicals and I prefer to use natural ways too and mostly use neem oil and spend hours picking them off especially the scales, but I have had to use a product called provado on the ones I can't reach or pick off that I water into the soil and it acts systemically, but it doesn't seem to be touching the wooly Aphids, but I will keep an eye out for the acephate sulphate, I am not sure if its available in the insecticide products here in Ireland :-) thanks a million for haring Brad and sending heaps of love and happy growing from Ireland XXXXX
sounds good, more videos like this, If they come up! thanks as always
Hi Brad, Love your videos. I recently purchased some cattleya seedlings, and to my disappointment yesterday, I found one with these crawly white tiny worm-like things on a leave. They did not look like mealybugs as they were more long in shape and did not have the fuzziness to them. Then, after inspecting the rest of my seedlings, I found an adult pest crawling on a leave..still teenie-tiny and beetle-like. Kindof reddy black in color but definately is not the red spider-mites I've seen before; (this same seedling has tiny black, tar-like dots also on leaves that come off when wiped with a cloth). After going online and doing much searching, I still cannot figure out what pests I have and therefore, I'm confused about what to treat these plants with. So far, I've isolated both of them and picked off the pests that were seen. Any thoughts to what these may be? Any advice is much appreciated.
Try and google thirps, they have different life stage so be sure to look at different images of that and they leave tiny tar dots aka poop on the leaves. Same product will work on them but they are nasty and can fly when adults so they spread quickly
Meant spell Thrips
Yup...that's indeed what they are, and two plants are infected! Thank you for your response. Keep up the great videos:)
Good info. on a situation every indoor plant grower will have to deal with at some point. While the use of toxic chemicals should be kept to a minimum sometimes the only viable alternative is to discard your prized infested plants. You've been lucky that mites, mealies and aphids haven't simply drifted in from outside very often as is commonly the case in greenhouses. Have you done a video on how to make sure that new acquisitions don't introduce pest and diseases into your collection / greenhouse ? ~ While use of toxic chemicals is unpleasant, controversial and undesirable it is also sometimes a necessity. Their use should be dealt with in a clear, detailed and forthright manner that actually helps limit their use, not promote it.
well said John
Verry helfull vidio...
I’m learning chemistry and I’ve read you have to be careful mixing alcohol with such substance like ammonia which some dish soaps have. That is my understanding tho 😀, good video tho mate
Thank you
I want to know can we use goat manure for orchid
You can definitely use it as face cream
Your info is useful. However, getting to the point more quickly would be helpful. Keep up the good work!
Helpful to the scales. But no content in targeting the other two types of sucking bugs unless there are two other separate video to complete the topic.
Title reads how to kill scale, mealy bugs and aphids. I have mealy bugs. I'm assuming this method also kills mealy bugs because its in the title even though you did not reference mealy bugs once during the video.
It's much easier to remove dead or alive scales with adhesive tape.
less blah blah ... show fast
Too much talking....staring at a plant...