How to Deal with Mealy Bugs on Succulents

Echeveria being sprayed (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

If you grow succulents, sooner or later you’ll deal with mealy bugs. For newbies, mealies often come as a surprise. Suddenly the plants are dotted and webbed with what looks like lint. Veterans are more vigilant. We check for

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Post-Summer Succulent Concerns

Dormant aeonium (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

After a brutal, early-September heat wave, I address ten common, post-summer succulent concerns. You’ll see them in my a new six-minute video: Post-Summer Care for Succulents (6:49). It’s a candid, warts-and-all, behind-the-scenes, damage-control tour.

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Ants in Your Succulents? What to Do

Rinse ants out of rootball (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

Late summer into fall, Argentine ants like to nest in the root balls of potted plants. Haworthias, aloes (especially dwarf varieties), gasterias and gasteraloes are highly vulnerable. Ants overwinter in the soil and consume the plant’s juicy core. Leaves eventually fall off and the plant dies. Ants push soil up from below. The first line of defense is to…

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