Mealybug on my avocado

[Jose Spain]

Hi everyone.

I just discovered these tiny mealybugs in my avocado tree. They are really small (1 mm the biggest), set themselves along the midvein in the lower face of the leaf and ants seem to love them so much that after picking the leaf 10 minutes ago to make the pictures and while writing these lines, the seven ants that came with continues around them without caring about anything else.



Anyone knows the best treatment for these parasites?

Thanks
 

[Jose Spain]

I found the mother.

[spaugh]

You need to get rid of the ants and then take care of the other bugs.  The ants are farming them for their juice that they are sucking from your tree.  Same for aphids and scale.  You have an ant problem first and foremost. 

Use tangle foot on plastic wrapped around the trunk to stop them and get some ant bait.

[Jose Spain]

You need to get rid of the ants and then take care of the other bugs.  The ants are farming them for their juice that they are sucking from your tree.  Same for aphids and scale.  You have an ant problem first and foremost. 

Use tangle foot on plastic wrapped around the trunk to stop them and get some ant bait.

Thanks Brad. I already did, ants are gathering around without find the way to come back home. I found the species of mealybug too, is Icerya purchasi if I'm right. It has a predator, the beetle Rodolia cardinalis, I think I saw one yesterday over one of my pitayas. I removed all the leaves affected that I found and sprayed some Potassium soap. Just found 4 adult females, so it seems at the first stages of the process, I'll check again tomorrow. If I find more Rodolia, I'll move them to the tree.

[shafak]

In Chennai, India - in an organic gardening group on Facebook, a few members give this suggestion for mealybug and other pests.

You can grind 20 gms each of Ginger, Garlic and real hot Green chillies, (3G) mix this in 100 ml vegetable oil and keep it sitting for 15 days. Use one ml of this dispersed in 1 litre soap nut water.( rind of one soap nut dissolved and filtered in one litre water) If you do not have soap nut you can use some mild yellow washing soap for emulsifying the oil. This can be used for all regular pest attack.
To this you may add 1 ml Neem oil.

[shafak]

In Chennai, India - in an organic gardening group on Facebook, a few members give this suggestion for mealybug and other pests.

You can grind 20 gms each of Ginger, Garlic and real hot Green chillies, (3G) mix this in 100 ml vegetable oil and keep it sitting for 15 days. Use one ml of this dispersed in 1 litre soap nut water.( rind of one soap nut dissolved and filtered in one litre water) If you do not have soap nut you can use some mild yellow washing soap for emulsifying the oil. This can be used for all regular pest attack.
To this you may add 1 ml Neem oil.

You can use the 3G immediately but after sitting 15 days in oil it will be more effective. 

[Jose Spain]

In Chennai, India - in an organic gardening group on Facebook, a few members give this suggestion for mealybug and other pests.

You can grind 20 gms each of Ginger, Garlic and real hot Green chillies, (3G) mix this in 100 ml vegetable oil and keep it sitting for 15 days. Use one ml of this dispersed in 1 litre soap nut water.( rind of one soap nut dissolved and filtered in one litre water) If you do not have soap nut you can use some mild yellow washing soap for emulsifying the oil. This can be used for all regular pest attack.
To this you may add 1 ml Neem oil.

Thanks pal, I used the 2 G (garlic and green chillies) and seemed to work for some pests. Neem oil is definitely effective for many insects, but over 30º C it can harm the leaves if I recall right. I used it a few times and most of bugs dye.

[spaugh]

If you already got rid of the ants it should not be too difficult to get rid of the pests.  Spray majority of them off with water then drench with neem or soap right before dark time.