{{gwi:160226}}If you truly have a virus throughout your collection there is no cure. If you have a known virused plant and it is not very special, you should have tossed it out.

Forgetting about virus for a moment, to get mealy bugs do a 5-step approach. 1-alcohol with a small amount of dish soap in a sprayer. Remove and brown material from the plant. Spray the plants one at a time all over using lots of the spray. This will destroy flowers, but if it is as serious as you indicate, they need to be sacrificed.

2-Set a plain water spray bottle for a strong stream and wash ALL bug bodies away. Any crevices and leaf joints wash with water.

3-Spray the whole plant with Bayer Advanced Rose and Flower insect killer.

4-Start using Bayer All in one Rose and plant care as directed. This will keep bugs from coming back. I never see aphids or mealybugs. This is effective for scale also.

5-replace your ant stakes. They are the most likely source of mealybugs.

richard, thanks for your advice.
I am still wondering, though, if anyone can tell me if they think doing all 3 treatments at once is a bad idea?
megan

The All-in-One is all three, but you need to get the bug population down.

Multiple plants in the same water is not a good idea.

Richard said: Multiple plants in the same water is not a good idea.
I echo his sentiments - this is a stellar method of passing along all kinds of fungal, viral and insect problems throughout your entire collection.
If you must mix up a giant vat of solutions, better to pour it through and over each plant individually, letting the excess runoff into the lawn.
Regards - Nancy