We have recently come across some white stuff that is on our cactus. I thought that it was a fungus of some type but through some research I found that it was not.
This white junk was spotted over a large portion of the cactus and appears that it was spreading over time and, if left unattended, would possibly kill the cactus.
The cactus itself seemed to be struggling on it own, ever since we planted it. The paddles are wrinkly and kind of thin, where they should be nice and plump.
We gave it more water thinking that it was just thirsty, but nothing changed. There was no improvement and it continued to look a little pathetic.
We really wanted this cactus to work out, especially since it is a variety that does not seem to drop its sharp, wicked stickers and should be safer around the animals and kids.
In different locations within our Town, we have seen this cactus in yards and it grows very nicely and is very large.
But for some reason, ours never really liked the spot it was put in.
One day we were out in the yard and notice that it got this white fuzzy stuff that looks like a fungus, but that is not what it is. It was all over it. The poor cactus looked worse than ever.
We decided to dig up this cactus and dispose of it. If it didn’t have other issues, we probably would have tried to save it by getting rid of this pest.
We kind of feel bad getting rid of it because one of the guys that works at an animal shelter near us, collected the fruit from this cactus to feed the turtles they have there. But something had to be done with it.
Sooo, after doing some research on this fuzzy white stuff, I was very surprised on what I found. I think you will find it interesting as well, so please read on!
What is this white fungus looking substance on my cactus?
According to various sources online, this is a pest infestation. Okay, so it is not a fungus. This was my first surprise.
This can be determined by noting that the white stuff is kind of fuzzy, which this is.
But most notably, if you squeeze the white substance between your fingers, or as I did and scraped it with a garden trowel, it puts out a very dark red color. It was also very sticky. This stickiness and red color really surprised me as well.
This pest infestation is mealybugs, also called a “cochineal insect“.
What are mealybugs?
Mealybugs is a soft-bodied insect that sucks the life out of plants. Okay, so if it is an insect, this doesn’t really surprise me. It sounds like they only do damage in large numbers.
They are a slow moving insect and they create this waxy like coating over themselves for protection from other insects and the environment. That is this white stuff.
I have found that this waxy like coating is very sticky. As you can see in the photo below, once the trowel smeared the coating, it was stringy.
The red color has been used for dyes and is in your food!
Okay, this is the part that really surprised me and I found it to be very interesting, which is why I am writing about here, to share with you what I found…
I wish I could find the website where I found a lot of good information on this, but I have had no luck finding it again. However, during my hunt for that website, I found another site that has a small amount of information on this as well. It is not as detailed as the site that I originally found, but it has some information and is pretty straight to the point. It comes from the University of Florida and you can read the article here.
When the mealybugs are squished or smeared, this creates a very dark red color. Look at the photo above.
To my surprise, I found out that the red color is used for various dyes and has been for many, many years.
I was even more surprised when I found out that it is also used in food and other products and cosmetics! Are you surprised? I sure was.
You can find various ingredients in red colored products that are associated with this dye. They are carmine and carminic acid (E-120). Sound familiar? You can read a good article more on this topic here. This site and others also lists a few other names this carmine color is referred to, such as, “natural red four”, “crimson lake”, “carmine lake”, and “E-120”, to name a few.
Go look and see what foods you find with these red color names. You can also go search online to see what food might have these names.
Not all reds are made with this natural ingredient. Others like Red #30 and Red #40 are petroleum or coal tar based. Yummy!
What would you rather have in your food? Insects, or petroleum or coal tar based products? I would personally go for the insects, but that is my opinion.
How to get rid of mealybugs.
I do not believe that you will be using this red substance as a dye or a food coloring. And you probably do not have any other good use for this so here are a few different ways you can try to get rid of this pest.
- Prune off the cactus paddle. You really only need to do this if this pest is causing damage to the cactus.
- Insecticidal soap.
- Neem Oil.
- Use a high pressure water stream from your hose.
If we didn’t have to take out the cactus due to other plant health issues, we would have tried the high pressure water first or just cut off a paddle or two if that was all there was. If that didn’t work, we would try the insecticidal soap or Neem Oil since these are known as safe alternatives to the stronger, manufactured insect killers that are questionable on our health and the environment.
Conclusion
So, there we have it. We eat insects from something that looks like a fungus of some kind. I would like to know who comes up with this stuff and thinks that something like this should be in the food we eat. But hey, somebody has to do it, right?
When I started researching for “white stuff on my cactus” to see what it is, I did not expect to find out about all this information.
Other Interesting Reads
This red dye was so valuable it built cities. One family in Mexico is still making it the old way