Thursday, September 24, 2009

Plant SOS

We have been hijacked by mealybugs. What I assumed were aphids on our basil plants about a week ago, turns out to be mealybugs. Thanks to hubby's prowess at googling, the plants' infestation has been correctly diagnosed.

Mealybugs are nasty! They're sexually dimorphic and short of letting loose some ladybugs to eat them up, there's not much we can do for indoor plants. Oh, we could also attack the pests ONE BY ONE by dousing them with a cotton bud soaked with rubbing alcohol. However, given the current status of infestation, by the time we get all the bugs and their offspring, the plants would probably be dead.

The mint is dying, of what, I'm not sure yet but there seems to be another infestation. There's a hoard of bugs in the soil in the pot. A HOARD. I'm not even going to go there. I told Jona to bundle the whole pot and chuck it but it is being put together with the two pots of basil in the ER.

The ER is the outside, alongside some bushes and flowers in the apartment complex. We figured there's gotta be a better chance of ladybugs getting to the plants out there than us actually getting any ladybugs ourselves on the twelve floor.

We'll give it a few days and see what happens.

So far, the only plant that doesn't seem to have any problems whatsoever and is happily multiplying is the menthol. If only we had more use for it.


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