How to fight pests on succulents

The aphid is one of the pests that most commonly affects all types of plants. These insects are commonly green, although there are also black and yellow, all of them a few millimeters in size. They feed by sipping the juices from the leaves and stems of plants, but they also secrete a sugary substance that promotes the appearance of ants and a black fungus.

The best for remove aphid from succulent plants is to use a home remedy in the form of insecticide for succulentsalways making an organic one ourselves or buying an organic one, always without resorting to commercial chemicals that are too harmful for plants.

• One of the most practical with succulents is use 70% alcohol diluted in water. By spraying your affected succulents with a sprayer, you will kill the aphid quickly. Normally plants do not tolerate alcohol well and it can harm them, but succulents are so strong and resistant that they are not affected by it. So much so, that you can even use it preventively. Of course, always apply it at dusk so that the sun does not hit them and thus avoid sunburn on the leaves. You can also bring them indoors and avoid direct sunlight during the days of treatment.
• Against aphids also works very well potassium soap, another great ecological insecticide used against a large number of pests. It is very easy to acquire and you simply have to dissolve a tablespoon of it in a liter of water. If you heat the water a little while mixing it, it will dissolve more easily. As with alcohol, spray the plants at dusk, looking for the areas most affected by the plague, and it shouldn’t take long to notice the effect. Here we tell you how to make potassium soap.

In addition, we recommend these other home remedies to eliminate aphids on plants.

The cottony mealybug It is another of the most feared and common pests. They are insects about 4 mm in size, light in color and covered by a white layer of a substance that they themselves produce and that accumulates in plants. They usually accumulate on the underside of the leaves or under the roots, although they are easier to distinguish because of that kind of “cotton” that gives them their name and which is actually egg sacs.

It is a dangerous plague because the substance they produce can cause the appearance of other diseases, such as black fungus, so it must be remedied as soon as possible. If we locate the pest in a very early stage, we can remove the insects ourselves manually, with a cotton swab or cotton impregnated with alcohol or potassium soap. Otherwise, it will be better to spray with a solution, as with the aphid.

We can also use dishwashing soap diluted in water or neem oil, very effective remedies against many pests in succulents. Neem oil is an ecological product that can be purchased online or in specialized stores, it is applied by mixing a tablespoon of the oil in two liters of water and spraying the solution on the plants, at nightfall and once a week.

In this other post you can learn more about how to eliminate the cottony mealybug.

The snails and slugs They can be very voracious and eat a large part of our plants, doing them a lot of damage and even killing them if we don’t do anything in time. They are an outdoor pest, practically never appearing on indoor plants.

If you see a snail or slug on your plants, don’t hesitate to remove it manually, take it to another green area adequate and look for more to do the same. When they are few, manual removal will suffice, but if the pest has spread it will be necessary to protect your plants by spreading circles of eggshell crushed around them or by placing beer traps, which eliminate them with great effectiveness. Here you can learn more How to combat snail and slug pests naturally.

weevils They are small beetles with a large number of shapes and colors, which tend to have a kind of elongated snout in their adult phase. Their larvae eat the roots of the plant, while the adults are not limited to these. They are especially dangerous in vegetables, as they force the product to be thrown away by causing diseases and infections that affect humans. It is best to resort to neem oilalthough in severe cases we can resort to biological pest control and acquire beneficial nematodes, which attack their larvae and do not affect the plants.

We recommend you read these other articles on How to get rid of weevils and What is biological pest control, its advantages, disadvantages and examples.

To finish talking about how to eliminate pests in cacti and succulents, we want to indicate other pests that can also affect these plants. These are other pests of succulents common:

• The ants.
• The shield mealybug.
• The white fly.
• The black fly.
• The thrips.

Against all these plagues, alcohol, potassium soap and Neem oil will be great allies.

As always, prevention can save us a lot of work and trouble when it comes to pests. Therefore, here we give you some tips to prevent pests in succulents:

• Try to always have your succulents in an optimal state: remove their dry leaves or leaves in poor condition, let the substrate dry enough before watering again and fertilize them with banana tea and specific fertilizer with eggshells in the months of growth .
• Never reuse the substrate of a plant that has suffered a plague.
• If you are forced to reuse a substrate that could be infected, water it with alcohol or boiling water to ensure that any remaining pests are eliminated, and allow it to dry for a few hours before putting in the new plant. It also helps to put it in a black plastic bag and leave it in the sun for several days, which will make its temperature rise enough to kill eggs, larvae or any bacteria.
• Do not put affected plants near healthy plants and, when you bring a new plant, leave it in quarantine for a while in case it is affected by a still invisible pest.

Now that you know all this, we encourage you to learn more about the care of succulents with this other gardening guide.

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