Mealybugs on citrus trees

[BlueJay12]

I need the advice of the MN gardeners please. We have small indoor orange and lemon trees which are suffering with mealybug infestations. Never had this issue before or on any other of our house plants now so am working on the basis that they arrived from the company concerned already infected.
I have tried all sorts, anti-bac, surgical spirit solution, proper insecticides, nothing works and the horrible little monsters are killing the trees. I sat one night and picked hundreds off by hand. Does anyone have experience of eradicating this problem, other than incinerating the trees and starting again - would never use that online nursery again though...
Thanks in advance.

Oh no! I hope your plants will be ok. I'm sorry I don't know but would you be willing to share the name of the online nursery you used so that it can be avoided?

Put them outside for the summer. I find that a good blast with the hosepipe every week helps to wash the blighters off.

Octopuscrazy: I'm not sure I want to go down the route of naming and shaming the company but they seem to be a popular online nursery company, never used them before and their general service was excellent...

MustardRose: They are quite small trees and relatively fragile, will a hosepipe blast not do more harm than good :-) Although if the little buggers are killing them anyway....

I find if I have a mealy-bug infested cactus and I put it outside for the summer, the mealy bugs disappear.

Alternatively, if they're indoor, you could try buying the predator. I think I'd probably encase both trees in a large plastic bag or fine net before applying - the predators have a tendency to fly off.

Definitely put them outside, they'll be far happier. My lemon tree gets buggy over winter but it's fine outside.