Olive Tree Pests - Get rid of mealybugs and scale insects

Whether native or foreign pests nibble on the olive tree, if they become too much, you have to do something. In the article you will learn how to get rid of mealybugs, insects and other plant lice without poisoning themselves or their environment. Olive trees, like all plants, are plagued by an excess of pests, if they are too weak for decisive resistance. The olive tree in Germany is not an unlikely scenario, but you can get rid of mealybugs and scale insects:

Native pests

These "old familiar" pests also like to nibble on olive trees:

1. aphids
Aphids eat leaves and leave honeydew on the leaves. First of all, they are beneficial and are not pests. Honeydew feeds on many other important insects, such as pests. Lacewings, ladybirds, parasitic wasps, some bees and birds. If they multiply full of spring fever at times, a vigorous olive can do it without damage.

On very weak olive trees, aphids can become too much (not really, some of the offspring get wings and move on). Then you can fight the aphids until the olive has enough of its own defenses again. But please by showering and not with chemistry, so that you flatten even the last aphid-consuming beneficial insect.

2. Mealybugs
The lice (lice, Pseudococcidae, family scale insects) behave in a similar way to the aphids, they are not to annoy the gardener in the world, but feed with honeydew (and with themselves) other, often useful small animals.

Therefore, it is also true for them: First of all, start mechanically, shower off, etc., strengthen plant and wait. If the mealybugs do not become less at some point, fight as described below:

Aphids and mealybugs in winter quarters

For olive trees, wintering is usually not a dreamlike environment. The unfamiliar rest and the whole climate with us weaken them, a found feeding for plant lice, which also do not like to freeze.

If you sight lice / eggs in the dormancy, they will be reduced by hand (brushing, brushing, showering), while waxy wool lice can be "dissolved" with alcohol-impregnated cotton swabs.

If that is not enough, you can spray the olives with oil preparations, the lice suffocate in the oil film (but not every kind). The oil-bearing lice can be decimated with Australian ladybugs (Cryptolaemus montrouzieri).

If you look at the roots of subterranean lice in large quantities, the root is dug up and washed, then dipped in dilute insecticide solution and repotted into new soil.

Some systemic insecticides are approved against plant lice, but they are also toxic, indoors use is not recommended. In winter quarters, they also do not work properly because the plant metabolism is shut down. So if you do not use it until spring, the problem is often done outdoors with the help of predators.

Foreign pests

Imported olive trees can bring pests:

1. Olive shield louse: see aphids, mealybugs

2. The olive fruit fly Bactrocera oleae is a dreaded pest in olive groves. She herself would be rather harmless, but can transmit tuberculosis.

Therefore you should fight the olive fruit fly, mechanical means and ev. Pesticides call you their plant protection office.

Olive fruit flies spread mainly in a humid environment, the olive tree should be kept fairly dry and possibly lit airy. If he is already eating fruits, they should be removed, they are usually full of fly eggs.

Tip: Pests can get into your house if a dealer does not work expertly. Otherwise, pests will not be a nuisance on their own, but only assume threatening proportions in weakened plants. Review of care and plant strengthening should therefore be tackled before any thought of pest reduction or control.

Strengthening the olive tree

If you have not bought any pests with, but native pests annoy the olive tree, is now as I said urgently exemplary care and plant strengthening turn.

The culture conditions should be checked point by point, light and air and irrigation and nutrient supply.

If so, you should ask the experts which plant tonics the particular olive variety likes the most, it is not certain that it appreciates our domestic broths such as nettle and horsetail. If you know what you can take, the olive tree has something special to offer: Olive trees can absorb nutrients through their bark, so you can spatter the whole tree all around, and it will definitely make you fit again soon.

Tip: Whether noticed late or bought, when the whole olive tree is full of eggs, sometimes they do not show off very well. If you do not want to wash off every leaf and every branch, you could try the bargain olive for a few euros with a radical cure: Olive down to a few strong twigs, nude root and also a little prune, all super clean wash and place in a new pot with new soil (collect remains in the plastic bag and dispose of it closed).

An olive tree can survive something, just this "combative" olive tree could be a really strong tree.