Question
What is the best way to address this issue when I have many house plants?  I have several that are very badly affected and others that are just starting to get the white fluffy stuff.  Some seem to have recovered with no treatment.  I read your other answers to some similar questions but didn t get info on the best pesticides/treatment for a multi-affected household.  Thanks for any help.

Answer
Sheri,

You have mealy bugs. Without knowing what kind of plants you have the best advice I can give you is to spray them daily for a week with one of the following 3 things:
1. Rubbing alcohol straight out of the bottle, undiluted.
2. 1 tablespoon of dish detergent mixed with a quart of room temperature water.
3. Neem oil mixed with water according to the package instructions.

The trick is to spray the fronts and backs of all leaves.especially where the mealy bugs are. Then spray twice a week for a month. I have problems with mealy bugs during the winter but when I put most of my plants outdoors for the summer they go away. The plants become stronger outdoors to fight off the mealy bug attacks on their own and outdoors there are more predators in the form of good insects to take care of the mealy bugs.

Good luck.

Darlene