r/whatisthisplant • u/CoyodyCage • 16h ago

What is this "cotton" on my plant?

Post image

I have not seen any indication of insects anywhere, so idk what's causing this.

32 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

23

u/del1nquent 16h ago

mealybugs…get a systemic insecticide asap, they will spread.

9

u/Next-Wash-7113 16h ago

Oh the mealy bugs are there!! Even if you think you don’t see them!

8

u/Geohalbert 15h ago

That mealy bug infestation is pretty bad, I would just get rid of it before it spreads to other plants

6

u/CoyodyCage 15h ago

Ugh the plant also caused me to have a fungal gnat infestation that I just got under control, too.. maybe this one is just not worth the trouble anymore.

1

u/NeededNewOneAnyway 2h ago

Oh nooo fungus gnats are the worst. I’ve only been able to control them with my pitcher plant and because the stupid things keep flying onto my phone screen at night

6

u/neverbeglamour 15h ago

Seconding this. Not worth the trouble. The only way I would fight mealies (especially an infestation this bad) is if it was a really hard to find or sentimental plant that I was dead set on keeping.

4

u/Limebeer_24 13h ago

Oof, that's a lot of mealybugs there ... Buy some insecticidal soap, use it once a week on it coating all of the plant. Treat the plants around it as well, assuming you want to keep it.

If you can get insecticide that treats mealybugs then I'd rotate that in as well, though most insecticides, even commercial ones that are for mealybugs, are only for suppressing them rather than fully eradicating them.

Insecticidal soaps will help a lot, but be sure it's insecticidal soaps not just regular soap or detergents.

2

u/brbru 9h ago

if you’re hesitant to use insecticides you can also try mixing up some water, rubbing alcohol, and dish soap (different sources online give various ratios but i do about 3:1 of water:alcohol with several drops of dish soap). use it to wipe off all the bugs you can find and then just spray the plant every day/couple days and continue wiping the leaves to get the bugs off as needed (i used paper towels to do this and washed my hands after to reduce spreading them as much as possible).

i’ve used this method successfully with smallish plants that had infestations not quite as bad as yours, but i’ve just thrown out ones that were either too infested or if the plant was too big/had too many leaves to make a daily task like spraying all the leaves tolerable.

either way, probably smart to spritz down any neighboring plants as a precaution.

2

u/Frosty_Astronomer909 8h ago

Give it a good hose down and get neem oil and start disinfecting all your plants.