[arvin555]

Updates again:

1. confirmed that soapy water is great against aphids.
2. Still am not sure if they are good against mealybugs and scale, I still get these pests on my Sarracenias, very annoying.

New info on suggested DIY pest control. There were a lot of suggestions to try CO2 method, basically just sealing the plant and injecting CO2, idea is that any pests will die from suffucation, but hopefully plants, because okay with CO2 will survive.

The experiement:
Tools/Materials:
1. Big green garbage bag
2. Clip/sealing device used to seal junkfood bags or just rubberband.
3. CO2 cannister (my brother has a big one for our old planted tank).

My first mistake was I used 3 sarracenias, instead of one, this was still an experiment so on hind sight, should have just used one or I might have killed all 3. Some of the plants had ants, and of course the scale and mealybugs on their leaves.

1. Put the plants in the bag.
2. Try to let out most of the air left in the bag by deflating the bag, careful not to crush plants.
3. Inserted hose for CO2, then opened CO2 valve. Sure took some time to fill so I opened up more, not a good idea, because the tube started to freeze. Anyway finally got it filled up with CO2.
4. Seal the bag with rubberband or the clip I mentioned.

I went to work and probably left the plants in there fore maybe 10 hours or so, opened up at night, and found that there were no more ants, all dead at the bottom. Of course scale and mealybugs are still there, but not sure if dead or alive, they never fell off.

No idea if I killed the plants yet, time will tell, but I think they still are okay... I hope. No idea if it killed the pests, aside from the Ants which were obviously dead.

An alternative that I just though of is that before putting CO2, spray a bit of waterbased insecticide in there, then CO2, might help too.

TTFN
Arvin