No matter your growing environment, mealybugs can sneak into your crops and destroy them quickly. SePRO Portfolio Leader Mark Brotherton and Kansas State University Entomologist Raymond Cloyd provide advice for how to handle them in either situation.
- Most, but not all insecticides can be used both indoors and outdoors. Make sure to read the label for products that are labeled for each.
- Cultural, fertility and scouting-type practices are mostly similar in both settings.
- In the greenhouse, you have the advantage of a controlled environment. Natural infestation is slower to occur in a clean house, unless one is brought in with new plant material.
- On the other end, greenhouse climate conditions are generally more favorable to mealybugs (aside from parts of southern U.S.), promoting shorter life cycles and higher levels of activity. Make sure plants are clean before introducing them to a new greenhouse or block.
- For heavily infested plants in nurseries, Cloyd recommends taking a hard water spray and blasting them off, especially on woody plants. However, you couldn’t implement this type of practice in a greenhouse with a succulent plant.
- For insecticides, timing (when colors are present, a once-a-week frequency and coverage of all parts of the plant are critical to control mealybugs effectively.
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