Found this on 1 of the Adeniums today. Thinking to create a new thread for everyone to share how and what works for treatment. Feel free to add and share for all of us to learn.


I think this will be the most friendly treatment for the adeniums. Just use a wet brush to take the bugs and move them into a small cup of water, the bugs will be floating on the water, then apply small amount of detergent into the glass, the bugs/mites will sink and die within seconds. Recheck again on the Adeniums 2 days later, there maybe some survivors, usually they will be clean after 2nd treatment

I had one that was attacked by yellow aphids and mealy too. I use q-tips with dishwashing soap and toothpick to remove them. But wet brush would be good too! I noticed though that there were some damage left on the leaves.

GigiPlumeria said:I had one that was attacked by yellow aphids and mealy too. I use q-tips with dishwashing soap and toothpick to remove them. But wet brush would be good too! I noticed though that there were some damage left on the leaves.

Thanks for the , I think wet brush is better as it is more flexible

Great idea @kaktus
Will try wet brush. I was using spray but it damages the leaves, buds and blooms. Little difficult to spray on blooms

One of my red Eagle blooms were infested by aphids I was able to pick them off easy by using wet cotton buds:

Aphids are pretty easy to eradicate if you keep the ants away and give the aphids a blast of water!

I'm fighting the mealies right now. I have a feeling it will be a battle for a long time.

plantmanager said:Aphids are pretty easy to eradicate if you keep the ants away and give the aphids a blast of water!

I'm fighting the mealies right now. I have a feeling it will be a battle for a long time.

I saw the beginning of a mealy infestation on Super Nova buds. So I just trimmed the branches right away. I am afraid of it spreading.

Keep a close eye on the plant. They seem like they can hide well and then all pop out at once.

plantmanager said:Keep a close eye on the plant. They seem like they can hide well and then all pop out at once.

Yikes will do!

I feel bad because the branch that had mealy had buds but could not take any chances.

plantmanager said:Keep a close eye on the plant. They seem like they can hide well and then all pop out at once.

In my case, they usually will attack one or two plants, seems like somehow the plants have some defence mechanism, the mites and ants will sellect the easy target

for aphids, scale and any other soft-bodied insect - insecticidal soap has always worked for me

a few insecticidal soap brands with "additional active ingredients" like sulfur - and one with seaweed ..... actually skeletonized the leaves .... and never use on a hot sunny day .....

best I found was Miracle-Gro Nature's Care Insecticidal Soap ..... but have since made my own with pure unscented Castile soap

This one I "rescued", the leaves are heavily infected by spider mites, so I will defoliate the infected leaves and keep this in isolation until next spring. At least the discoloration is due to spider mites, which is treatable and not due to virus.

I haven't had this on Adeniums, but on other Cudiforms, I use Dish soap or sometimes rubbing alcohol.

They usually disappear fast here when I just defoliate and clean the branches with water. They spread fast if grown indoors or when we are dry.

I have had a lot of problems with the black mites/aphids...

Everybody have a Safe & Prosperous New Year

Spent 30 minute wiping the aphids off the leaves of the still recovering "My Sweetie Pie" desert rose. The infestation was in almost every branch that I had to use paper towel to wipe them off the leaves and stems. I probably will have to do it again tomorrow as I probably missed some!

Sorry I forgot to take a photo but for heavy infestation of aphids, paper towel works best!

Inspected my 'Sweetie Pie' and there were a few stragglers aphids I had to pick off but other than that, seems okay now.

Not sure how these aphids choose one plant over others. So my ' Pink Pearl' was infested by aphids and it is complete opposite location as my 'Sweetie Pie'.

This is what the aphids look on one of the buds:

They are no match for a wet paper towel:





This method is effective for me, there is no need to apply chemicals.

I still prefer the wet brush method as it is easier to reach into the smallest corner of the plant.

So you also experienced how the aphids only pick one plant? I also experienced that, my best guess is that the aphids knew which is the weakest plant.

Kaktus said: I still prefer the wet brush method as it is easier to reach into the smallest corner of the plant.

So you also experienced how the aphids only pick one plant? I also experienced that, my best guess is that the aphids knew which is the weakest plant.

Yes! It looks to me like they pick the plants that have fresh leaves or fresh buds. I might have to look tomorrow if other desert roses are infested. It is harder to find when you have too many!