Borgainvillea suffering from mealy bugs and potentially scale! Any advice

[Nick_The_Greek]

Hello

I have had two borgainvillea for close to a year now both had problems with mealy bugs I have tried the low tech (washing up liquid in spray) which has moderate success but I have recently had a look and they are back with a vengeance. Has anyone won a battle against these bloodsuckers? note. I cannot use permethin due the fact I have a lovely cat.

Nick

[quanglewangle]

I have borgainvillea evny. Whereabouts are you?

[mothhawk]

You can get predators for mealy bug now but they are not cheap. It's actually the larvae of the brown Australian ladybird, Cryptolaemus montrouzieri. Our ladybird larvae scoff aphids, Aussie ones scoff mealybugs.

[Nick_The_Greek]

Suffolk, We have a rather tall greenhouse/lean to I think its 12ft at its highest point so I would love to train it to the highest point. I cannot say which varieties... One with white bracts with greyish foliage and the other is purple pink bracts with green foliage.

Nick

[Plot70]

I had something that looked like mealy bugs on the trunk and something else like blue aphids in the leaves of a bay tree.
Because the foliage is quite sturdy I was able to blast them all off with high pressure water successfully.