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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Disease but fight to continue on!

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I noticed the morning sunshine Kissing the edges of our ficus trees.

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But looking lower, I discovered dark disease spots on the leaves and then clusters of white spun cotton fluff appearing at intervals.

I was surprised that the trees continue to grow in spite of obvious disease.

Kind of metaphor for our nations.

Asher
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
Direct treatment of the bugs is not likely to work on a large plant outside. I would cut and remove the infected parts, as ficus trees regrow very fast. Then, I would use ant traps to get rid of the ants which protects the mealy bugs.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Direct treatment of the bugs is not likely to work on a large plant outside. I would cut and remove the infected parts, as ficus trees regrow very fast. Then, I would use ant traps to get rid of the ants which protects the mealy bugs.
That’s good to know, Jérôme!

We can spray for the ants.

I will tell them gardener to cut them out as you suggest

Interesting that males are very poorly developed and don’t eat!

I have to watch the brown spots As to what disease that could be. In the past we had Cuban thrip that lays edges that develop inside the leaf between the ll upper and lower layers and create a bubble home inside!

Asher
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
I would not spray ants, as that does not really work. There are ant traps, small boxes which contain poisoned sugar solution. The ants take that home and the nest dies. If you cut the infected leaves, you will remove the ants food supply, so the traps will work better.
 

James Lemon

Well-known member
Except all our ants have become snobs. The eschew sugary treats. They are only seduced by protein traps or flame throwers!

Asher

The product will leave a trail for others to follow back to the nest. Ants also like to share food back at the nest with their friends, including the Queen, eventually killing everybody. The tactic is truly diabolical !!!

James
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
The product will leave a trail for others to follow back to the nest. Ants also like to share food back at the nest with their friends, including the Queen, eventually killing everybody. The tactic is truly diabolical !!!
James,

They worked 6 months ago! We must have wiped out a score of queens. But this colony is likely a complex of many miles. The new ants only want protein and totally ignore sugary bait!

So I finally gave in and had the garden sprayed selectively at the perimeters for the ants. We have wiped them out for the past 3 months!

We are strict to limit spraying so as not to harm the rest of the insects and the birds. We have a place where crickets thrive and I check tgst they are not being harmed!

Asher
 

Tom dinning

Registrant*
Christine is an effective agent for the eradication of all pests, including the persistent mealy bug.

She stands in the garden and swears profusely at them then hacks the plant to the ground and burns the buggers.

If you provide an air fare she might come to visit your garden.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Within 30 seconds of he blasphemous tirade, she’d be subdued with a net as an invading life form.

On Fox News ex President Trump woukd praise her for her grass root values and posters her would appear everywhere, from the Republican Party demanding she be nade Mayor!

Asher
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
Christine is an effective agent for the eradication of all pests, including the persistent mealy bug.

She stands in the garden and swears profusely at them then hacks the plant to the ground and burns the buggers.

If you provide an air fare she might come to visit your garden.

The problem here are ants. The mealy bugs are only a side-effect.

Ants have been roaming this planet for over 150 millions years. They have survived the dinosaurs. Ants are quite successful as a species, they make about 20% of the total animal biomass on this planet. This is more than the combined biomass of all vertebrates.

If Christine is an effective agent for the eradication of ants, I would like to see her doing. From a safe distance, like another planet for example.
 

Tom dinning

Registrant*
Personally, I don’t see any of the aforementioned organisms as a problem, including Christine.

symbiosis isn’t new to the planet. Species have been sharing for longer than we’ve had gardens.
Bring a plant into the garden and it most likely the will introduce all the organisms that live on and from it.
Mealy bugs and ants get along quite nicely. Food for the ants and herding for the mealy bug. Like us and cows.

living in the tropics of Australia is a nightmare for gardeners. Fungus, moulds, microbes, invertebrates, and even a few vertebrates will take up residence and feel happily on the patch of greenery we call home. They might even move into the house if the climate gets a bit severe.

my great grand daughter and I are content with observing without disturbing. After all, it’s only a pest if we don’t want it.
Flipping over the fluff on a leaf and finding a cute bug is exciting for a 75 and 11 year old. Grasshoppers munching, worms feeding on grass, beetle larvae burrowing, moulds sliming across a wet lawn. It’s all part of having a garden in the first place.

Eave the garden to fend for itself.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I would not spray ants, as that does not really work. There are ant traps, small boxes which contain poisoned sugar solution. The ants take that home and the nest dies. If you cut the infected leaves, you will remove the ants food supply, so the traps will work better.
We did spray for ants, but on the edge of our house and then outside the property so as not to get on the lawn or in the water of the swimming pool!

I would hate to see a toxicology report of swimming pool water as it’s recycled for years!

Asher
 
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