Have you recently discovered a white, pink or even brown film on your jaw? Is your coniferous tree also in poor condition? Then he probably suffers from a mealy bug infestation. This pest likes to use pine trees to lay eggs. Still, there is no reason to worry. With the following tips you can quickly get rid of the troublemaker.
How do you fight mealybugs on a pine tree?
To combat a pine mealybug infestation, isolate the infected plant, remove lice with a cloth dipped in alcohol, use lemon balm spirit as a deterrent, cut off affected leaves and continue to spray the plant with lime-free water.
The Mealybug
Mealybugs are a subspecies of scale insects. There are more than 1000 known species of the pest. They are only 1 to 12 mm in size, have a dark green, white, pink, brown or black body and nest in various conifers. There is an increased risk, particularly in spring from April to June. They form a smearing layer of hair on branches and twigs. They also secrete so-called honeydew, a secretion that promotes the formation of the sooty mold fungus.
Symptoms
The following signs on your jaw indicate the mealybug:
- Needles turn yellow
- Crip needles
- white wax wool on the needles
- Needles die completely
- Formation of the sooty mold fungus
Causes of an infestation
There may be a care error behind the infestation. Check your jaws for the following conditions:
- introduced mealybug that was already sitting on the tree when we bought it
- too little light
- fertilizer too high in nitrogen
- dry, warm heating air
- weakened trees
Combat
A few days ago the needles of your pine were covered in mealybugs, now they have suddenly disappeared. Unfortunately, this is too good to be true. This observation is common, but it is a fallacy. The pests simply retreat, but appear again in the following year at the latest. In addition, mealybugs have a waxy body covering that protects them from chemical agents. Nevertheless, you can attack them with these means:
- isolate the infected plant from the rest of the crop
- dip a cloth in spirit (€39.00 on Amazon) and use it to wipe the lice from the needles
- the smell of lemon balm spirit drives away the vermin
- cut off affected leaves
- Continue to spray the plant with lime-free water
