Hello lovely people of this subreddit, I hope you can help me 🙂
I fell in love with alocasias and ordered two online (Frydek and Silver Dragon).
The silver dragon especially looks a bit worse for wear and has – what I think are – mealy bugs.
I cleaned and treated all the leaves (of all of the plants in that package) and isolated them.
Since I‘ve been told mealy bugs can lay eggs in the soil too, I‘m unsure if I should repot it. The care tips advise against it in general, because of stress after „moving“, so I‘m not sure. What would you do?
And do you know why the Frydek has these spots on its leaves?:)
by Altruistic_Catch_571
1 Comment
I’d rather be safe than sorry! Mealy bugs are BEASTS. I would give an instant report to both plants of they were in the same package. The plants were moved during the transport anyways. A bit more trauma won’t kill it, if you don’t do anything, the bugs will tho 🙈
Make sure to be super super gentle with the roots – once you got most dirt of, I recommend rinsing the roots until they are sparkly white no dirt left, to prevent future issues.
While you are at it – switch to pon as a substrate, Alos LOVE that and strive much more compared to soil, while being less prone to pests 😍 if you do, just make sure there is really not a trace of soil left, otherwise they might get root rot.
Good luck to you 🫶