Help with houseplant pest?

[steiconi]

I wouldn't use Dawn Ultra or any "ultra" dish soap on plants. It has an ingredient that damages the waxy coating on leaves and can kill the plant. Use non-ultra dish soap to avoid that.

[Zoisite]

Originally Posted by steiconi

I wouldn't use Dawn Ultra or any "ultra" dish soap on plants. It has an ingredient that damages the waxy coating on leaves and can kill the plant. Use non-ultra dish soap to avoid that.

99% of the time I'd agree with you on that but wooly aphids would be the exception. That white fluffy stuff on their bodies isn't natural hair of fuzz like you see on bees or caterpillars for example, that white fluffy stuff is strands of white wax that the aphids secrete from their bodies for their own protection. The plant doctor's goal is to dissolve that wax and kill the wooly aphids as quickly as possible since they are reproducing 5 or 6 live babies every single day and they are all spreading and doing more deadly harm to the plants every day. Exponentially.

So if I encountered them on my plants I'd be faced with having to weigh the pros and cons of either getting rid of the aphids as quickly and efficiently as possible, or slowly and inefficiently ..... and taking a chance or not taking the chance on the plants withstanding and recovering from any kinds of treatments that I apply to them in order to rid them of something worse that causes more harm to them than the treatment can cause.

A human comparison, a simile, could be like when a cancer patient and their doctor has to decide whether not they're going to undergo unpleasant chemotherapy or radiation treatment that makes them feel sick in order to get rid of the cancer that is likely going to kill them if they don't go through the unpleasant chemotherapy or radiation treatments. What would the doctor decide would be best in the long run for their cancer patient?

What tough decision will the plant doctor make on behalf of the ailing plant? The plant doctor will know that many but not all plants produce a waxy coating on their leaves and that those plants that do produce it will re-produce / replenish the lost waxy coating in time if something occurs to strip the original coating off the leaves and stems.

The plant doctor will usually take the chance of saving the plant by deciding to get rid of all wax in order to quickly kill the ailment that is slowly but assuredly killing the plant if it gets no treatment.

For wooly aphids on plants I would decide to use heroic methods on the plants. Such as stripping off all wax that might be on them and on the aphids, also stripping off their honey dew, and even subjecting the plants to being sprayed with a toxic solution and being exposed to freezing cold temperatures for a short period of time. A different kind of chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

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[Zoisite]

Here is one more simile for you with regard to extreme measures that must sometimes be taken to get rid of pests that get into people's houses.

Bedbugs.

What does a resident do if they discover their home has somehow become infested with bedbugs? Bedbugs are like aphids, they suck the lifeblood out of you and they cause extreme discomfort. The resident is going to attempt to completely exterminate all bedbugs by subjecting their whole house to deadly poisons and very high heat and washing everything that can be washed. It's inconvenient for the resident to have to do those things and to leave their house temporarily for several hours while the exterminator is poisoning and heating the house, but the alternative of not doing those things is much, much worse for the resident and their family.

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[Parnassia]

I had very limited options that wouldn't require mail order or a 4 hour drive in the forecasted bad weather. Assuming action sooner than later was more important, I ended up with some Garden Safe brand insecticidal soap the garden supply has gotten good feedback about and applied it thoroughly to all the plants, their soil and pots. I'll keep watch for further infestation. Hopefully got ahead of it. If I have to treat again I'll do the cold shock treatment as well if it is actually still that cold. Zoisite, I only read your reply describing that after the solution had dried and we'd gotten 4+ inches of snow.

Thank you very much for your help folks! Only one of my two Pachypodiums seems affected. These fussy creatures grow very, very slowly even in perfect conditions, but they've produced blooms almost every year for me. The larger plant might be older than I am. There's a photo of the younger one in my album. The last thing I want is to leave them miserable.

[Zoisite]

I hope the treatment you applied does the trick for you.

I looked at the picture in your album, the flowers on that plant are exquisite.

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[kitty61]

My first thought was mold and there is nothing you can do. The spores are everywhere. It's not recoverable.

I recommend to everyone to re-pot your healthy house plants with fresh soil every 2 years after washing the pot clean.

Poor soil does not impart nutrients and the plant becomes susceptible to disease.

[Parnassia]

Originally Posted by kitty61

My first thought was mold and there is nothing you can do. The spores are everywhere. It's not recoverable.

I recommend to everyone to re-pot your healthy house plants with fresh soil every 2 years after washing the pot clean.

Poor soil does not impart nutrients and the plant becomes susceptible to disease.

The plant isn't moldy or rotted. The caudex is uniformly firm, no discoloration which is often an early sign of rot in this genus. This is an extremely slow growing succulent. No sense in repotting every 2 years and you risk injuries to roots that barely reestablished from the last transplant!