This week's celebrity gardener is gender illusionist, Courtney Act. Courtney is currently putting together an album and will be shortly organising a cabaret tour reminiscent of the 1940s.

Don advised Courtney to throw out potted dracaenas infested with mealybugs, as the mealybugs may spread.

Mealybugs have small pink, yellow or grey bodies covered with white, powdery wax and fringed with waxy threads. Sooty mould grows on the honeydew they produce. They are very persistent, sap-sucking pests, which hide in protected places on the plant as well as underground. They feed on the leaves causing distortion and wilting.

Over the years Don has used various sprays to get rid of mealybugs, but to no avail. Dabbing them with a cottonbud soaked in methylated spirits is extremely tedious and not very effective. If the mealybugs are on an indoor plant you can try integrated pest management, that is using one insect to control another.

Contact information

Integrated Pest Management Pty Ltd
Phone: (07) 4165 4663
Website: www.bugsforbugs.com.au

Courtney's album will be out late 2004. Her single 'Rub Me Wrong' is available from all good record stores, RRP $4.95.

Copyright CTC Productions 2004