The Naughty Corner

Argh how much do I hate mealy bugs? They are a bane in my hoya-growing life. Last year I had a really bad outbreak of root mealy bugs and had to pour some noxious stuff all over my poor plants to try and get rid of the things.

Now I find that they're back on the Hoya carnosa and the Hoya publicalyx "Pink Silver". The tell tale fluffy cotton wool and little grey bugs - Argh! So I was straight away with the methylated spirits trying to get rid of the ones I could see and, as they were outside last year, they had spiders webs all over them so they had to have a good wash too. After that I sprayed them with insecticide (I'm sorry, I know I should be more eco-friendly, but it's the only thing I know that works) and now I'm crossing my fingers that I've got rid of the horrible things for the time being.

And finally, I have to apologise for not updating this blog for a while - I'm now working a lot harder than I used to and when I get home the last thing I want to do is do yet more work on the computer!