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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Avocado house plant mealy bugs ?

4 replies

667TheNeighbourOfTheBeast · 20/07/2023 13:34

Hi hope I’m posting in the right place. My daughter has grown an avocado plant from its stone/seed and it had been doing very well but we both watered it on the same day unknowingly and it went downhill from there looked yellowish and drooping leaves. Then I spotted some white cotton wool like fluff on the stem and leaves and thought this was mealy bugs from a quick Google. I took the plant out of the pot and loosened a bit of soil and put back with less soil in another pot so it could dry out a bit and I’ve been spraying with a mixture of Neem oil and washing up liquid in water done this about four times now and thought it was looking better but today spotted more white blobs and it’s now even on the soil ! I’m not sure what to do next , do I try with a pesticide or is this plant on its way out ? Worried it may spread to other houseplants too although I have been keeping it away from them.

Avocado house  plant mealy bugs ?
Avocado house  plant mealy bugs ?
Avocado house  plant mealy bugs ?
Avocado house  plant mealy bugs ?
OP posts:
blowthemakiss · 20/07/2023 13:37

We had mealy bugs on a bay tree, looked kind of like a tiny woodlouse on top of marshmallow fluff.

Might be woolly aphids? I spray those with diluted washing up liquid, seems to do the trick. That's on an outdoor plant though, I've never been any good with indoor ones!

HarridanHarvestingHeldaBeans · 20/07/2023 14:13

I had woolly aphids on a fig tree and I just squished them! The woolly stuff seems to protect them from sprays, and the squishing is quick, free and effective.

MereDintofPandiculation · 20/07/2023 14:17

@blowthemakiss what you describe sounds more like scale insect. Mealy bug looks either like a white "mealy" bug, or a white fluffy mass of eggs. Scale insect has a white mass of fluff underneath when it's reproducing.

@667TheNeighbourOfTheBeast The yellowing of the leaves looks as though the avocado isn't getting enough nutrient, either because it's used up the nutrient in the soil and wants some fertiliser adding, or because the soil is too wet and the roots are rotting. The droopy leaves points more to over watering. This wouldn't be a result of you both watering on the same day, it would be a longer peiod of being over generous with the water.

By far the easiest way to get rid of the mealy bug on something with just a few big leaves is to pick them off., or dab them off with a paint brush.

If you can get the plant back to health, it will be far more successful at resisting mealy bug attack. Iget occasional mealy bug on my cacti, and it's the ones that are already having problems that succumb.

When you say "spraying with a mixture of neem oil and washing up liquid", do you mean just neem oil and washing up liquid? I wouldn't see that being very good for the plant. On its own, the neem oil I would be afraid of blocking the stomata which control water flow from the leaves, the washing liquid on its own would damage the cuticle of the leaves, mixed together they'd make and emulsion which I can't see as being good for the plant. Or do you mean water with a squirt of each in?

667TheNeighbourOfTheBeast · 02/08/2023 14:05

Hi thanks for the replies, @MereDintofPandiculation i think it was chronic under watering tbh as when the plant is with my daughter at Uni it’s pretty much left until it is drooping ! I had been spraying with neem and washing up liquid in water lol but after three goes of this decided it needed something stronger and have used Baby Bio bug killer which seems to have helped. Plant has perked up and not looking as limp but leaves still pale/yellow ish. There are some very small new shoots at top now so hoping these will come through healthy

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