Bug invasion!

[mike in chayofa]

Has any Tenerife forum member any idea what these are, and how to get rid of them?

(They look like babies teeth with fillings :eek: )1763

[canarybird]

Yes you have cochinilla, one of the insects which proliferate here in Canaries. Otherwise known as mealy bugs.

There are over 2000 species, some of them fluffy and white, some with what appear to be shells, like limpets, some which cling to roots underground (root mealybug.)

Cochinilla used to be used here on the islands for making a red dye.

You can find out a lot by doing an online search. They can infest everything from palm leaves to hedges and ornamental plants, usually on the underside of leaves, or the type you have....on the stems as well.

Different methods are used to get rid of them, according to the type you have, but if you go to any garden center and ask for a spray to get rid of cochinilla you will get something. Even better, take a branch with them on, and bring it in a plastic bag to a garden center or hardware store that sells insect sprays. You may even find some in a supermarket like Mercadona.

If there just are a few of them on an indoor plant, you can pick them off with a tissue soaked in alcohol (be careful not to touch the plant) but if on an outdoor plant you should spray. The fluffy ones on outdoor plants .....such as on the underside of leaves on rose bushes, hedges etc, can be washed off with a strong spray of the hose, but they will be back so you might want to buy something stronger than water.

Canarybird

[mike in chayofa]

Thanks for that. I'll start looking out.


....... but if you go to any garden center and ask for a spray to get rid of cochinilla you will get something. Even better, take a branch with them on, and bring it in a plastic bag to a garden center or hardware store that sells insect sprays. You may even find some in a supermarket like Mercadona.


Yep. I took some leaves that were infested in a jam jar to the garden centre between the Palm Mar roundabout and Guargacho the other day. They took my phone number and promised to phone me back with a remedy. Guess what!!! They didn't :crying2:

[canarybird]

That was helpful of them wasn´t it! :shy: Perhaps you should go back there and ask again.

Well now you know what it is, you can look for a cochinilla remedy. I have a lot of my old gardening notes and will look to see what´s the best solution for that type which lives under an outer shell. If I have something that sounds easy to use I´ll get back to you. :)

Added after 40 minutes:

What is the plant? Is that something which produces fruit or is it ornamental?
If you want to use a chemical solution, there is Folithion by Bayer or Insecticida Triple Accion by Compo (I believe that´s a spray.) There may be some more newer products on the market now, including some environmentally friendly ones.
I gave up using any kind of insecticide in my garden years ago.

Otherwise you could rub them off with a Q-Tip soaked in alcohol, as I mentioned, depending on the size of the plant...is it an indoor plant and small?

The other ecological remedy is to mix up a squirt of mild dishwashing detergent with 1 tablespoon of rubbing or burning alcohol, adding one liter of water and then spraying this on the insects. You´ll have to then rinse off the spray after 15 minutes so it doesn´t burn the plant.

The little scales that you see usually house the insects or the larva inside.
They then suck the sap from the stem underneath. They do look like babies teeth with fillings don´t they!

Canarybird

[Suej]

Has any Tenerife forum member any idea what these are, and how to get rid of them?

(They look like babies teeth with fillings :eek: )1763

Thanks CB! My first thought looking at the picture was OMG we had been invaded by aliens!!!