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aloes and succulents pests and diseases |
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with methods to keep it under control |
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| The plant sucking bugs and treatment. |
| mealy-bugs are small sucking white fluffy insects. The white waxy fluff protect the insects. |
| aphids are light green or sometime blackish insects. they are found on new growth of many plants in the garden. Ants like the plant sucking insects, but they just love the aphids and take very good care of them by defending them against their natural enemies. The ants carry the aphids into soft new growth and crevices on the plants where they are not easily seen. They do a lot of harm to the aloe plants and in moist weather rot sets in quickly. Some very interesting information about aphids |
| aloe-scale is a very flat oval shaped small sucking insect with a water resistant white covering. There is a reddish-brown larger aloe-scale which lives mainly on aloes. Scale live close to each other forming patches that may cover the whole leaf (killing it) or if left untreated it may cover the plant. The patches of white specks are obvious and unsightly. They can do damage by weakening a young small plant, but they do not cause rot as easy as the aphids and mealy bugs. |
| All these plant sucking insects do not move about very much. It is more often the ants that care for them and carry them to new pastures. In exchange they excrete sweet liquid for the ants. More information on scale insects |
| Natural enemies are ladybirds, lacewing larvae, hoverfly, parasitic wasps, spiders and other small hunters. |
| No harsh poisons are needed. Wash them off with a dish washing soap liquid - best is if it is a lemon or orange scented dish washing liquid. A mild nicotine wash with a drop of soap is also very effective. Mix the nicotine water to look like weak tea. |
| root-bugs are small whitish sucking insects that live underground near the surface on the roots of the plant. The ants will also tend and protect them. A give away sign is usually a mount of loose earth that the ants heap up around the aloe stem. If the plant looks sickly dig just under the soil. The soft white bugs are easily seen. We do not use poisons on the other sucking bugs but in this case it is too difficult to reach the bugs. Drench the soil with a mild system poison. |
| Aloe mite are very tiny but they can cause a lot of trouble. The worst one in my opinion is the aloe-cancer mite. Their primary method of population spread being by wind. Aloe-cancer is caused by a mite that lives inside the plant cells. This cause the cells to multiply and form ugly weird growths. Cut out the affected part of the plant. Paint with a small brush a concentrated system insecticide on the wound. Do not paint the plant, paint the concentrate lightly only on the wound. The cancer damaged part of the plant will die, so cut it out, that leaves less mite to kill. Do not discard the mite infected plant materiel on the compost heap. Discard it with the carbage in a sealed plastic bag. |
| shield-bugs are seldom seen. They are a dark grayish color and about the size of a fruit fly. The bugs are definitely large enough to be seen, but they hide in the debris around the plants from where they go out to suck the juice from the soft new growth in the center of the plant. They run very fast and is deft in dodging under a leaf. Small white dots on the leaves are a sure sign that they are there. Shake a little anti-insect garden powder (sold as Blue Death in South Africa) in the center of the growing point every 3-4 weeks. A week or so after applying the powder the new growth will obviously be without the tiny spots and the snout beetle (weevil) will be kept at bay as well. The snout beetle lays it's eggs in the center where the larvae bore down into the aloe. Nothing is seen until the center collapse with more often than not, the whole aloe rotting. |
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| rot should be cut out. Treat it with anti-fungus and leave to dry. When an aloe looks sickly without any signs of something wrong on the outside, the roots are rotting. Remove the plant (it will probably be loose in the soil) cut off the dying roots and leave the plant dry to form new roots. Here is a very good blog on growing new roots on an aloe. |
| Rotting rosette is very easy to spot as the leaves will be loose. Here again remove all rotting material. You are lucky if you have a clean piece of the stem left over. follow the instructions |
| You can not grow an aloe from the leaf like in Gasteria and most succulents. That is a fact. |
| Prevention is not always possible but it will help a lot. |
| Ants and their plant lice pets, should be kept away. Make sure the plant has enough sunlight and free air. A plant in the middle of flowers or grass (Oxalis is very bad over here) is prone to stay damp and rot. Overall good drainage, do it with rubble, stones, broken tiles, pottery. |
| rust and leaf spots are caused by fungi or bacteria entering the plant. |
| It will also start where water is standing in a leaf; rotting leaves and debris in the crevices; soft leaves due to too little sun; sickly plants with unhappy root systems and other mishaps. Treat with products against fungus and bacteria on the market. The best remedy is prevention, but that is not always possible. A plant is seldom killed by rust or leaf spot unless rot sets in. It may not look good on plants on display, but in the garden it is just one of those natural markings. |
| slugs and snails can cause a lot of damage to aloes and succulents. Not only by the unsightly holes but also by the aloe rotting as a result of the damage. |
| There are a lot of ways to kill the snails and slugs. The bait on the market works well it is not expensive and it is easy to use. No matter what use any or all, just get rid of the slugs and snails. |
| Soil problem - Sickly plants may be due to poor soil or growing aloes that prefer basic soil in an acid medium, have the pH-factor of the soil tested. |
| Add more gravel or small stones if the soil is packed. Old manure is a very good boost to condition soil. |
