Epiphyllum has white fungus like growth?

[NTCHBL]

Uncles monster has been growing this strange fluffy white fungus like material. I wasn't aware until I went to visit a week or so ago. I'm kinda scared for the plant as the areas that had the thickest coating of the stuff have started to die off. Some parts of the plant which were big and healthy last summer have died completely.
The material crumbles easily under the press of a finger.
Here's a picture taken this morning.

[Peterthecactusguy]

is that mealies or is that cochineals?

[NTCHBL]

I'd assumed Mealies were bugs. Correct me if I'm wrong please
This is a white frothy soft growth almost similar in texture to dried out bread mold.

[Peterthecactusguy]

smash them. If it oozes purple/red it's a cochineal, if it doesn't it's probably mealies bugs.

[NTCHBL]

I crushed a couple when I was up there and didn't notice any color change in the fluffy junk or the cactus flesh below, really I only messed with it because I'd never seen the like before.
So, I suppose it's safe to assume these are the mealies. The picture in my head when "Mealies" is mentioned is Meal Worms.

How does one go about ridding the plant of these nasties? I don't want to see the adult plant die off any more than it has, poor thing's been moved probably three or four times at the size it is and it's got to be better than sixty years old.
Mind you I'll be relaying most of this to my grandmother to do so I'm going to need pretty clear instructions. If it's too complicated I may have to wait until next I get paid and make a trip up to her house to take care of it for her.
My uncle works at a hardware and garden store so if there's some product they sell to be rid of the buggies I can ask him to pick it up for grannie to apply to the plant.

[Steve Johnson]

I crushed a couple when I was up there and didn't notice any color change in the fluffy junk or the cactus flesh below, really I only messed with it because I'd never seen the like before.
So, I suppose it's safe to assume these are the mealies. The picture in my head when "Mealies" is mentioned is Meal Worms.

How does one go about ridding the plant of these nasties? I don't want to see the adult plant die off any more than it has, poor thing's been moved probably three or four times at the size it is and it's got to be better than sixty years old.
Mind you I'll be relaying most of this to my grandmother to do so I'm going to need pretty clear instructions. If it's too complicated I may have to wait until next I get paid and make a trip up to her house to take care of it for her.
My uncle works at a hardware and garden store so if there's some product they sell to be rid of the buggies I can ask him to pick it up for grannie to apply to the plant.

Yes, the word "mealies" tends to get confused with Meal worms for those unfamiliar with cacti. Mealy bugs are in fact a type of scale insect. If that is indeed the problem you're seeing in your pic, this is only half of it, since they can also infest the roots. I don't know if your infestation is purely above-ground, or if it could also be in the roots, but either way those critters are bad news.

I use an insect killer with Imidacloprid, as this seems to be the most effective active ingredient against mealies. My preferred choice is Bayer Advanced Complete insect killer with 0.72% Imidacloprid. Ratio is 1 tablespoon Bayer Advanced per quart of water thoroughly mixed. You can certainly spray it on the plant, but I believe the best way is to water it as a soil soak. This gets the full benefits for using it as a systemic in which the plant's juices become toxic to mealies all the way through.

In the interest of full disclosure, I only grow desert cacti, and during the winter their soil needs to stay dry. If I had a mealy infestation right now, there's pretty much nothing I could do except hope that my cacti being infested will survive until I can apply their first watering in April. Honestly, I have no experience with tropicals, so maybe someone else here can tell you about whether a soil soak in winter would be okay. By the way -- if it turns out that your problem is not with mealies, Imidacloprid may not be effective for whatever it is you have.

[Peterthecactusguy]

sorry if it was confusing, like mentioned, Mealies are scale insects as are cochineals.

Both of them feed off the plants juices. The white fuzzy stuff is created by the scale insects to hide them.

Also as stated before mealies will also attack the roots and might be eating those as well.

[*Barracuda_52*]

Wow thats a nasty infestation of mealies, the one thing i didnt see mentioned was if it was next to other plants cacti or non cacti, which it looks like it was by others in the pic i would deffinately inspect AND OR treat all plants as they might have spread to the other plants.

[NTCHBL]

Wow thats a nasty infestation of mealies, the one thing i didnt see mentioned was if it was next to other plants cacti or non cacti, which it looks like it was by others in the pic i would deffinately inspect AND OR treat all plants as they might have spread to the other plants.

I had grannnie move Fred, the African Milk Tree, away from the Epi as soon as the consensus of buggies came through, as long as the bugs have been on the Epi it'll be a wonder everything in the house doesn't get the blasted things.

This is the only thing about grannie I don't like, just like with her car I usually have to notice something off before she tells me something is wrong. She drove her van with a nasty click in the steering for ever before she told me anything about it, now it's hardly worth fixing.
You guys probably couldn't tell how much of the Epi is yellow and dead and coated in fuzzy bugs in the pictures, but it's going to take a massive trim and loads of gentle scrubbing to get it to look anywhere close to healthy again. I can't wait to get those things gone, I think I'll probably take a little drive and buy my books for school in Co. Springs so I have an excuse to make the extra thirty miles to Grannie's house to scrub the buggies off the Epi and check the rest of the plants in the living room, plus I think she mentioned there was one in the dining room with the fuzz too so I'm going to have my hands full.

With the watering in the off season... Generally Grannie's house doesn't get lower than 65 in the winter time, do you think it would be alright to go ahead and water early this year? I could probably convince her to bump it up to 70-75 and keep it that way for a week or two if it means getting rid of the buggies sooner.

[NTCHBL]

Just thought I'd pop in and update on the Epi, Fred and the numerous cuttings taken from the Epi.
Grannie wasn't too keen on spraying insecticides on plants that never go outside, so I had her try a recipe using black tea, a bit of dawn dish soap, and water. The recipe said you could use it as a root soak and as a spray/scrub. We tried it out. Worked like a charm!
It literally killed everything that was alive on the plants and in the pots including the fungus gnats some of her tropical plants had going on! The big Epi has resumed it's slow march across the ceiling with the assistance if it's friendly yarn supports and even flowered again a few weeks ago!
Fred, the milk tree, didn't show any signs of having the mealies but we gave him a root soak and rinse anyway just in case they had made their way into his pot.
We lost one of the cuttings from the Epi in spite of the soap mix but the rest of the babies have done extremely well.
I'll try to post some pictures of the rest of my cacti soon and I'll get a few pictures of the Epi next time I'm up at her house so you guys can see how well it's doing

[teo]

Is 'milk tree' a kind of Euphorbia? I have had my share of mealies on different plants but never on any Euphorbia (and i have a number of different kinds). It seems that mealies don't like the euphorbia latex sap (and that seems logical )

[LazyD]

Is 'milk tree' a kind of Euphorbia? I have had my share of mealies on different plants but never on any Euphorbia (and i have a number of different kinds). It seems that mealies don't like the euphorbia latex sap (and that seems logical )

I used to think that until recently I found a few mealies on my Euphorbia. I was shocked - why would mealie bugs attack this plant the sap is supposed to be toxic!?! I used a Qtip and some rubbing alcohol to get rid of them.

[NTCHBL]

I believe mine is Euphorbia Trigona. I've got a couple o new starts I cut off of Fred last time I was at the house. I'll take some pictures as soon as they're growing a bit better and post them.