Greetings, caretaker. From our perspective as succulents, our plump, water-filled leaves and sturdy stems are a testament to resilience, but they also make us a prime target for a variety of tiny invaders. We rely on you to be our first line of defense. Here is a detailed account of our most common adversaries and how you can help us recover.
To us, mealybugs feel like a slow-moving plague. These tiny, soft-bodied insects cloak themselves in a white, cotton-like wax, making them easy to spot in the crevices between our leaves and stems. Their method of attack is particularly draining; they pierce our skin with needle-like mouthparts and suck out our precious sap. This weakens us significantly, causing our leaves to yellow, wilt, and potentially drop. The honeydew they excrete is another problem, as it encourages the growth of sooty mold, which blocks sunlight from reaching our surfaces.
Your Treatment Protocol: For a light infestation, we appreciate a gentle but firm approach. Dip a cotton swab in 70% isopropyl alcohol and dab it directly onto each white bug. This dissolves their waxy coating and dehydrates them on contact. For a more widespread issue, a spray of the same alcohol solution (mixed with a little water) can be applied to all our nooks and crannies. In severe cases, a horticultural oil or insecticidal soap spray will suffocate the pests. Please ensure you check us regularly, as these pests can hide and return.
Spider mites are nearly invisible to your eye, but their damage is not. They are not insects but arachnids, and they thrive in hot, dry conditions—the very environment many of us prefer. They live on the undersides of our leaves, piercing our cells and sucking out the chlorophyll, the very substance that gives us life and color. The first sign you might see is a subtle stippling of tiny yellow or white spots on our leaves. As the infestation grows, you may notice fine, silky webbing between our leaves and stems. Left untreated, we can become severely dehydrated and desiccated.
Your Treatment Protocol: Since they dislike moisture, a powerful spray of water can dislodge a significant number of them. Focus the spray on the undersides of our leaves. For persistent problems, insecticidal soaps or neem oil solutions are very effective. It is crucial to apply these treatments every few days for a couple of weeks to ensure you eliminate newly hatching eggs. Increasing the humidity around us slightly can also help deter future attacks.
Scale insects are masters of disguise. In their adult phase, they attach themselves firmly to our stems or the base of our leaves and develop a hard, protective shell that makes them look like small, brown, or tan bumps. They remain stationary, feeding on our sap for long periods, which stunts our growth and causes our leaves to yellow. Like mealybugs, they also produce honeydew.
Your Treatment Protocol: Their armored shell makes them resistant to many sprays. The most direct method is to physically remove them. You can gently scrape them off with your fingernail or a soft brush. After removal, wiping our stems with a cloth dipped in soapy water or isopropyl alcohol will help clean up any remaining residue and young crawlers. For larger infestations, horticultural oil can be used to smother the scale by coating their shells and blocking their breathing pores.
The adult fungus gnats buzzing around our soil are merely a nuisance. The real danger lies beneath the surface. Their larvae live in the soil and feed on organic matter, but they have a particular taste for our tender, young root systems. This root damage prevents us from taking up water and nutrients, leading to sudden wilting, poor growth, and vulnerability to root rot.
Your Treatment Protocol: The key is to target the larvae. The most effective strategy is to let our soil dry out completely between waterings, as the larvae cannot survive in dry conditions. Yellow sticky traps placed on the soil surface will catch the adult gnats, preventing them from laying more eggs. For a serious infestation, a soil drench with a biological control like Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) will specifically target and kill the gnat larvae without harming us.
