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How to treat mealy bugs on pings? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I have a bit of a conundrum. Twice now I've seen fairly large mealy bugs in this ping's dish. ordinarilly I'd dunk the whole plant (roots and all) into insectidal soap for 30 minutes. With pings though I worry the leaves are too sensitive.

Has anyone ever successfully treated pinguiculas for mealy bugs or other soft bodied pests?

Luckily it's in my quarantine so it hopefully won't spread to my whole collection. Below is a closeup of the culprit, along with the plants in that room (mostly newly bought pings...)

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[-] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Update: So I may have gone postal... After doing some searching online a couple people mentioned insecticidal soap. Well, I happened to have some on-hand and figured screw it. Whatever lives, lives.

I'll leave them in there for a day and see if any plants survived (god I hope so...). Surfaces have all be sprayed with alcohol and all the substrate + nursery pots have been tossed, with the rest soaking in dishsoap.

Here's hoping I didnt just murder all my new babies. I didn't see a single mealy on any of them so no idea which plant(s) was the culprit.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

All of them? For a day? Lol

[-] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

😬

good gods I'd be deathly afraid if I were to do that to my own ping.

For next time I'd recommend using Diatomaceous Earth and sprinkle that around your plants as it'll dehydrate any insects as soon as they touch the silica powder. This should kill any unwanted insects/pests without causing harm to your plants🤗.

One thing to note is to be careful when applying/spreading DE as the silica can be toxic when inhaled or consumed.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago

Keep us posted! I'm rooting for you!

[-] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Definitely take some leaf pullings before! Just in case, if the soap kills the plants, you have a backup and can start growing them again.

I'm in a similar position with my Drosera right now.

What substrate do you use for your pings? If you use peat or other organic media, I think they won't be super happy. They arent bog plants and don't like to be having wet feet constantly afaik

this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
39 points (100.0% liked)

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