How to Massacre Mealybugs

Recognize fluffy mealybugs on your indoor plants?

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Water
• indoor insect spray

1. If you see fluffy white cottony things on your indoor plants, they might be mealybugs. Mealybugs prefer to lodge in the crevices at leaf base. Sometimes they are found on other plant parts too.

2. What are they doing? Mealybugs are very tiny insects covered with powdery-looking waxy threads. They group together. Mealbugs feed by sticking their strawlike feeding parts into plants. These stylets suck up nutritious plant fluids. Plants go hungry while mealybugs thrive. Plants will yellow, wilt, and grow poorly.

3. You want to get rid of mealybugs as soon as you see the cottony white clusters. Each female can lay up to 600 eggs. These eggs are hidden under the cottony coverage. Sometimes the white coverage turns dark grey. This is sooty mold fungus. This is more common on outdoor plants. The fungus is growing on the sweet "honeydew" pooped out by the mealybug.

Tips & Warnings

• Your job....You can try spraying the mealybug patches with water. But it is hard for water to penetrate the waxy coverings. I use a Houseplant insect spray. It says "mealybugs" on the label. Just spray the mealybugs. Check ever so often that none survived to multiply.
• Read the label on any spray you use. Follow directions!