mealybugs on String Of Turtles
Quick answer
If your String Of Turtles has mealybugs, the most likely cause is: Mealybugs are listed among the named problems of Peperomia, including the small-leaved creeping and trailing kinds such as Peperomia prostrata; the insects settle in the tight nodes where each turtle-shell leaf meets the slender stem and along the cascading vines, where their white cottony masses and honeydew coat the foliage and the soil surface beneath the plant.
Start here:
- 1. Dip a cotton swab in standard household isopropyl alcohol and dab each visible white cottony mass at the leaf-stem joints and along the trailing vines, taking care to reach into the dense internodes where mealybugs hide on P. prostrata.
- 2. After spot treatment, spray the entire plant — including the undersides of the small leaves and the lengths of stem — with an insecticidal soap or a dilute neem oil solution, and repeat the spray at weekly intervals until no new cottony masses appear.
Why String Of Turtles gets mealybugs
Peperomia prostrata
Mealybugs are listed among the named problems of Peperomia, including the small-leaved creeping and trailing kinds such as Peperomia prostrata; the insects settle in the tight nodes where each turtle-shell leaf meets the slender stem and along the cascading vines, where their white cottony masses and honeydew coat the foliage and the soil surface beneath the plant.
How to reverse mealybugs on String Of Turtles
- 1
Dip a cotton swab in standard household isopropyl alcohol and dab each visible white cottony mass at the leaf-stem joints and along the trailing vines, taking care to reach into the dense internodes where mealybugs hide on P. prostrata.
- 2
After spot treatment, spray the entire plant — including the undersides of the small leaves and the lengths of stem — with an insecticidal soap or a dilute neem oil solution, and repeat the spray at weekly intervals until no new cottony masses appear.
Keep mealybugs off this String Of Turtles
Inspect the dense internodes and stem joints of the string of turtles during every routine watering, isolate any new Peperomia for a quarantine period before mingling it with the collection, and avoid over-fertilizing with nitrogen-rich feeds that push soft new growth attractive to mealybugs.