Common pests of King Protea and their control methods

Common pests of King Protea: scale insects

Pest symptoms

Scale insects attach to the surface of the leaves of the king protea, and their secretions contaminate the leaves, even causing serious consequences such as leaf withering.

Causes of scale insect occurrence: untimely disinfection and breeding of insect eggs.

Prevention and treatment methods

Spray the pesticide in time during the nymph stage. You can use 1000 times diluted 40% oxydemeton-methyl, spray once every 8 days, for 2 to 3 times in a row. Mixing white wine with water can also effectively kill scale insects without damaging the leaves of the king protea.

It will be even more convenient for flower lovers who have rice vinegar at home. Soak a cotton ball in rice vinegar and gently rub the affected leaves. This can kill the scale insects and make the leaves green and shiny again.

Common pests of king protea: black beetle

Pest symptoms

The adult body is 28 mm long and 11 mm wide. Tentacle hammer 4 sections. The pronotum has a stitched edge. The scutellum is small and densely covered with yellow-brown fine hairs. The elytra have dense and obvious longitudinal ridges, densely covered with small punctures, a wide false margin fold, and a narrow margin fold. The caudal process of the elytra is obvious, and the caudal suture is wide and groove-shaped. The female's wing-tail process is slightly shorter than that of the male. The first stern has obvious wavy transverse stripes. The male has a brown-red setae brush between 1-2 internodes of the abdomen.

Prevention and treatment methods

90% trichlorfon, or trichlorfon, bran and grass (1:100:200) poison bait is effective against adults of the bright soft ground beetle and the large black slipper beetle.

Common pests of King Protea: whiteflies

Pest symptoms

Adult nymphs suck the juice of leaves, fruits and young branches. The affected leaves develop green yellow-white spots. As the damage worsens, the spots expand into patches, and then the entire leaf turns pale and falls off early. The flavor quality of the affected fruit is reduced, and young fruits often fall off when the damage is serious. Excreting honeydew can induce sooty mold disease.

Prevention and treatment methods

Early stage pests: When whiteflies occur sporadically, start spraying 1500 times diluted 20% cypermethrin wettable powder or 1000 times diluted 25% acaricide emulsifiable concentrate, 3000-4000 times diluted 2.5% pyrethroid emulsifiable concentrate, 2000-3000 times diluted 20% cypermethrin emulsifiable concentrate, 1500 times diluted 10% imidacloprid wettable powder, once every 10 days or so, and carry out prevention and control 2-3 times in a row.

Common pests of King Protea: termites

Pest symptoms

A thousand-mile long dam can be destroyed by an ant hole. The domineering royal protea can also be attacked by termites. Termites often burrow into the soil and then suck the roots, slowly destroying the growth of the plant, causing it to wither and die.

Prevention and treatment methods

Good termite control agents are chlordane and mirex. Spray the medicine into the potting soil to kill termites. If there are too many termites, you can consider changing the pot.