You probably all know that I have a lot (but still not enough) of cacti. I show their flowers or pretty spines from time to time. All nice and pretty.
But it is not always like that.
Sometimes evil buggers want to kill all my plants without me even noticing them. They are that cheeky!
Just a few weeks ago I noticed mealybugs on some of my cacti. I could not water them with bug killer, cause they are sleeping now and watering will basically kill them (cold and wet roots = root = cacti death). So I picked the few unlucky ones, took them out of them pots, removed all the buggers and soil and potted them up again. In spring when they wake up they should be fine.
But as I went though a few pots... I thought I might repot them all and them all and give them bigger pots and fresh soil.
And guess what?
Those damn f*** were in every pot! Not all mealy bugs will be sitting and munching on new growth. Some will hide among the roots and right under the soil level feeding on the plant and new roots. The plant will slowly die this way.
And so I went and took out from the pot this little beauty here. It was blooming for me last year so nicely and looked pretty well. Then in the late fall it started to shrivel. Which is quite normal for cacti to do in winter. They are not watered and the body shrinks a bit.
But it really didn't look good at all!
Yep... it had mealybugs too! I just hope I wasn't not too late with any of the spiky friends and the damage was not too severe. I will be very lucky if I see any flowers from this one this season...
Poor thing..
I probably should have taken some photos before repoting, the hiding buggers and later on...
But when I am on a mission of saving one and the soil and pots are almost flying around and my fingers are full of spines, I don't think of a camera.
Priorities! :D :D
As a bonus a photo from last summer where 3 (our of 7 of my Gymnocalycium) cacti were in bloom.
And a baby Baldianum I grew from seed. It is doing fine and soon it will start a new growing season!
But still will have to wait about 2 years to see flowers from that one. A lot can happen in that time...
Shot with Nikon D5500 + Sigma 105mm lens
All photos and text are my own.
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I wonder if diatomaceous earth kills mealy bugs. Maybe put a layer of it in the bottom of the pot if the little wretches like hanging out there.
I actually never heard of that! They like to hang around the roots in the middle, not just at the bottom.
I Got a huge bottle of Neem oil. That should help :)
This post has been manually curated by The PhotoStream team: The Photography Tribe!
Thank you :)
Your photos of your cacti are so beautiful. I did the post on my wife's cacti today and tagged you as I said I would. Please don't expect to see anything as spectacular as yours though :)
Thank you!
Ohhhh yayy... going to see :)
All cacti are spectacular!!
You are very much welcome. Hope you enjoy the post.
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incredible flowering :) I really envy you :))
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Thank you! I hope it shows at least one flower this year too.