We've returned from our trip to Colorado and with many new cactus and succulent plants. It seems like any place where cactus plants are sold there are always at least a few infested plants. Usually there are at least a few patches of mealy bugs, and possibly scales or mites too. The plants I already have at home are - to the best of my knowledge - free of insect infestations, and I need to keep it this way especially if I'm going to have plants to sell. Returning from a trip with new cactus plants means I need to clean all of them even if they appear to be insect free.

Being a person who is striving to learn and practice organic horticulture I cleaned all of my new cacti and other succulents with a natural product. (There are about ten globular Euphorbia plants that I'm leaving alone, because they never seem to be eaten by mealy bugs - but these are the only exceptions.) The product I'm using to clean plants and cleaned over 100 cacti today with is "Thayers Medicated Superhazel with Aloe Vera". It's sort of ironic to use a product with Aloe to clean succulents, but the Aloe is mostly irrelevant to getting rid of insects. This product has "clove oil" in it and that ingredient is very toxic to mealy bugs, and the product is all natural.

There are lots of products designed to rid plants of mealy bugs and these insects are tough to kill. They have water proof webbing to protect themselves and eggs which makes it difficult to get them wet with water or alcohol based products. A few years ago when I was testing different products from local health food stores I noticed that Witch Hazel products were the most effective at dissolving mealy bug webbing. Most of these products with Witch Hazel worked very well at removing mealy bugs and killing any other kinds of insects too. However, mealy bugs cleaned off with most alcohol and witch hazel products seemed to return after a few months. I'm unsure, but I think the eggs would survive sometimes or perhaps a few juveniles insects in some hidden location would repopulate the plants. This specific witch hazel product, with clove oil, seems to be an exception and has worked very well for getting rid of mealy bugs for good. The problem with this product is that clove oil is also toxic to plants and I've killed some cactus plants by using this product on them, but I've got a method that is working well now.

First all of the cacti were removed from their pots and the soil disposed of in outdoor gardens where none of the insects would survive the coming winter. The roots are cleaned of their soil as much as possible and then they are allowed to dry out for at least a few days. I started removing plants from their pots while we were still in Colorado, and it also makes traveling with cacti easier. With the plants out of their pots they can be packed in boxes and this saves a lot of space in the car. The cacti are rinsed and dried then wrapped in newspaper to be packed into boxes. In taking some of them out of their pots I found colonies of insects, on some of them, under the soil level. This is one more reason to clean every plant before bringing it home and exposing them to plants we've already collected. Very healthy looking cactus plants can have insect colonies living in the root systems, but back to my system of cleaning the plants...

The cactus plants are completely dipped in the "Thayers Medicated Superhazel with Aloe Vera" and allowed to sit for about half an hour. Then the witch hazel is completely rinsed off of the plants with warm water. It is very important to rinse off the witch hazel with in a few hours, and not leave the solution on the plant. Now, I'm leaving the plants in trays to dry out and can repot them as I have time. They can sit under a plant light without being repotted for as long as two months. Cacti are very good at staying alive unpotted for long periods of time, but the other succulent plants will need to be repotted sooner because they can dry out too much. I'll need to repot the noncactus succulents first because they can dehydrate sooner and many of their root systems can be damaged if they get too dry.

This is my basic method for cleaning new cactus plants and hopefully avoid bringing in creatures like mealy bugs to my bug free collection plants and the ones I plan to sell too.