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Pest help needed, tried systemic insecticide.

I have a nepenthes alata 'Boschiana Mimic' that is suffering from some pest. I have sprayed it twice with ortho systemic insecticide, covering the leaves and the undersides of the leaves. The pest are still her and look like they are spreading.

It is a very nice plant and it's a pretty good sized one too, pitchers are currently about 5-6"

I took some photos that I will post later to help identify the pest so we can talk about other possible treatments.

I couldn't post photos of a sick nepenthes without posting pictures of my other plants.
See thread
It might lead people to a wrong idea of my growing abilities. I'm not conceited, but I do have a green thumb whether one of my plants is suffering from pests or not. I have the plant isolated, I'm eager to eliminate the pest so I can move the plant back to my other window which gets light from fluorescents after sunset.
 
well if we had a description on the pests, that might help. or if you even knew what kine they were.
pic of the pest? something that we can go off of. because pest treatments change depending on the type of pest usually.
 
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GAHHHHH It's the dreaded whitefly.

Here's what you should do, and even then you have to hope for the best:

1) Get one of those yellow fly strips that are really sticky. Put it near the plant.

2) Make a solution of 1/2 rubbing alcohol, 1/2 water, and a drop of dish soap. Use a Q-tip to remove anything that looks like those things. Take your time and be thorough.

3) Get some Orthenex or similar pesticide. Spray heavily and even spray a bunch on the media. We're not messing around here - spray it on! Then, do the same thing in five days, then again in another five days. This will ensure that the eggs that have already been laid won't miss the pesticide treatment.

4) Pray.

Best of luck. It doesn't look that bad yet, so you can probably stop it. By the way, the plant can take quite a bit of it - but it will spread if you don't take care of it and you'll never get rid of it.

Capslock
 
Caps- I've been told by a friend of mine who owns a very large orchid nursery that this is not whitefly, but a species of scale that originates in Hawaii. I never had this pest before until I received several plants from a grower there and his plants seemed to be the only ones infected.

Spraying is only a temporary fix and is not good enough by itself, especially on the soil surface. If you are using a systemic pesticide it MUST be watered through the roots for the most effective control as the plant will distribute the poison throughout its tissues on a broader scale.

Mix your solution up and really soak the soil mix. You can spray too...but you really should give the plant a good soaking. It would even be better to place the plant in a bucket of solution and let it soak there for 30 minutes to be sure you get a thorough soaking.
 
I've been trying Neem oils on this pest.... we'll see what it can do.
 
I found Neem oil to be very slow if effective at all.
 
Dude my predator has whitefly and I've sprayed it and rubbed it down so many times I'm gonna go crazy.
 
a mix of neem oil and physan 20 has proven crazy effective for me on neps. applied as a spray on leaves and soaks into the soil. good luck man!
 
  • #10
Is it whitefly or is it thrips from Hawaii? I will not disclose the vendor but the plant is from hawaii, originally. I bought it from another vendor in the contiguous 48 states and it had noticably problems when I bought it, however all my other plants look okay so I don't think the pest came from my collection.
Right now I'm leaning towards Caplsock, I believe he probably has more nepenthes than all of you combined. hehe
 
  • #11
I don't think it's white fly.
looks like what I had on my truncata I got from Hawaii. Took forever to kill them off. I don't think sellers should send an infected plant. I think I got rid of them after using ortho a bunch of times, some other powdered insecticide and using alcohol on a q tip. I never saw any flies, just those white things on the plant. They never spread to any other plants.

pics I took of the pest 2 yrs ago
truncatapest.jpg

truncatapest2.jpg
 
  • #12
I read somewhere a while ago about somebody who tried a new technique for pest eradication within terrariums, where it would be a huge pain to remove all the plants, spray insecticide, repeat, etc. It might be beneficial to you here as well. The treatment goes as such, I don't have time to find the original website, but it should turn up fairly easily.

The writer went out and purchased a bit of dry ice, which as you probably all know is the solid form of CO2. Due to the nature of the CO2, the user was able to eliminate all insects through suffocation. He placed the CO2 above his terrarium, and left it there for some time, maybe overnight if I remember correctly. The CO2, being more dense then the air around us, sunk into the terrarium, and displaced all the other gasses within. This was no problem for the plants, since they require CO2 for photosynthesis, but in return, suffocated all the insects. The only issue was ensuring the CO2 gas entering the terrarium without freezing the leaves of the enclosed plants. If these bugs are really persistent against insecticides, this might be an option to consider. Then you could do a short write up afterwards.
 
  • #13
Whitefly, Hawaiian scale, whatever it is, I can recognize it from a mile away, and I hate the things! They seem to love truncatas and truncata hybrids, by the way, though not exclusively. Anyway, do the things we've recommended here, and CONSIDER simply getting rid of the infected plants completely. I have eradicated them from plants, but they are stubborn as hell.

Capslock
 
  • #14
Wikipedia also suggest releasing a ravenous hoard of Ladybugs upon them. That might leave you with another problem though, getting rid of the ladybugs, which I find rather annoying.
 
  • #15
Huh! I have that on two of my plants.

I've been using a fungicide with some affect....fungoil I beleive. I thought it was a fungal infection! Goes to show you...

Well, I will hold my breath and orthene the hell out of the two plants....THEN add the fungoil on top of it.
 
  • #16
hmm, I saw something like that on my ventricosa. I just left it and it went away, I can't believe how lucky I was. o_O
 
  • #17
Wikipedia also suggest releasing a ravenous hoard of Ladybugs upon them. That might leave you with another problem though, getting rid of the ladybugs, which I find rather annoying.

There were literally been swarms and swarms of lady bugs in my area a couple of weeks ago. They all came in the no seal window screens I have and got in a huge cluster in the corner of the ceiling. They were actually Japanese or Asian Beetles or something like that.

xvart.
 
  • #18
yup, they huddle together in warm places to spend the winter.
 
  • #19
i read this thread, rushed upstairs to my plants, and found them on my sundew Q_Q
guess i'll have to try that dry ice technique soon
 
  • #20
I am not sure of getting rid of the plant. I have it isolated where it comes in contact with no walls and is at least 9 inches from the 3 plants that it's near. It's the most isolated spot I have.
 
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