GROWING THINGS: Indoor wars against plant pests

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Q We moved three years ago, and shortly after we moved most of my house plants developed what I thought at first was a fungus. It was a sticky, white, fuzzy substance in little blobs and splotches all over the stems and leaves.  It killed all my violets before I found out it was mealybugs. I bought a few kinds of sprays, all guaranteed to get rid of mealybugs, but they just kept coming back. I lost a 30-year-old rope hoya, several other kinds of hoya, a red Dracaena and others. The only plants left are a couple of peace lilies and a palm and while there are some signs of the bugs, they seem mostly healthy.  Read More