Dear all, I strongly endorse John's recommendation of Marathon for treating mealy bug and other insect infestations on bulbs, especially on container-grown plants. We use it all the time to prevent new infestations here. Most outdoor-grown plants we receive here have a few mealy bugs on them when they arrive. We use Marathon to kill these and avoid the spread of a noxious pest of bulbs. My web site often attracts questions about treating Stagnospora. It can infect Crinums and Clivias as well as Hippeastrum, Hymenocallis, and probably almost all Amaryllidaceae. For individual bulbs, I recommend the following procedures: 1. Physically remove the worst of the red incrustations and affected plant tissues 2. Dip or spray the bulb and infected leaves with diluted hydrogen peroxide (final concentration about 1% H2O2 in water) -- drugstore peroxide is 3%, so dilute one part drugstore hydrogen peroxide with two parts water 3. Let dry in air for a day or two 4. Spray with a good systemic fungicide. I use Bonomyl/Cleary 3336 wettable powder (thiophanate methyl) but benlate (benomyl) is good if you can find it 5. Repeat the spraying with systemic fungicide at about 10-day intervals until you are satisfied that the danger of re-infection is past. Stagnospora infections almost always result from excessive water and humidity. Control the moisture and you can avoid a lot of the potential stagnospora infections. Jim Shields in central Indiana At 06:51 AM 3/17/03 -0500, you wrote: >Marathon (imidacloprid) is an excellent treatment - contact and systemic >insecticide with residual activity that lasts several months. It is an >ideal drench for bulbs a few weeks before they go dormant. >Dr John T Lonsdale >407 Edgewood Drive, >Exton, Pennsylvania 19341, USA ************************************************* Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd. P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/ Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA Tel. +1-317-896-3925 Member of INTERNATIONAL CLIVIA CO-OP