How to Get Rid of Mealybugs

If you have indoor plants, you have likely encountered mealybugs before. These tiny insects make their home on your plants and can be commonly found in homes and greenhouses due to their adversity to the cold. Knowing how to deal with them before they become an infestation can prevent them from damaging your hydrogarden, homegrown fruit seeds, and beautiful indoor flowers, leading to further diseases that could cause additional issues for your plants. 

If you have found mealybugs on your plants, then luckily, there are several methods for removing them and, just as important, several steps you can take to prevent them from finding a home in your flower garden or indoor plants. Keep reading to learn all you need to know about these pesky bugs, the plants they like to target, and how to get rid of mealybugs once and for all. 

What Are Mealybugs?

Mealybugs are tiny yet persistent pests that can plague a wide selection of plants. Measuring around 3-6mm long, they have pink, grey, or white filaments and prefer to inhabit tight spaces, including the leaves and stems of your plants. However, they can also sometimes be found in the soil around your plants. 

The bugs get their name from the white, waxy, ‘mealy’ material covering adult females' bodies. The sap-sucking insects will infest the vines and leaves of the host plant. While one mealybug won't do much damage as it feeds, an infestation of mealybugs can be detrimental to the health of your plants. Mealybugs are hard to control once they have infested your plants, so it is important to understand the plants they like to target and the signs of a mealybug infestation. 

What Plants Do Mealybugs Target?

No plants are immune to the threat of mealybugs, but they do have preferences prefer sweeter citrussy plants. Think fruits such as grapes and figs and indoor or ornamental plants such as orchids; these all provide them with the perfect conditions to thrive. Mealybugs will attack any weak plant and are also known to go for herb seeds, including rosemary and sage.  

Mealybugs will target conditions more than plants themselves, meaning no plants are particularly immune to these pesky insects. If your plants reside in a warm and humid environment, they become a prime target for pests. They will also target weaker plants that may have lacked fertiliser, not seen enough sun, or are sick from another pest. 

The Signs of a Mealybug Infestation

Some of the common signs of mealybug infestation are the discolouration of stems and leaves, honeydew, a sticky syrupy substance that appears on the plant typically excreted by the pests, leaf drop, branch dieback, and more detrimental signs such as ants looking to harvest the honeydew, and finally, black sooty mould growing on the honeydew.

Because they are sapsuckers, mealybugs only reside on the parts of a plant they can draw nutrients from. Typically found on the leaves, you can easily spot a mealybug infestation. The damage alone will be an indicator, but because mealybugs leave behind a honeydew secretion, ants will be attracted to the plant, which in turn encourages the growth of sooty mould.  

Female Mealybugs will lay large clutches of eggs that look similar to cotton wool. However, the mealybugs that reside on the plant itself are only half the battle, as the ground-dwelling mealybugs love to feed on the plant's roots and can typically only be exposed by digging. 

Healthier plants will be fine with a low-level infestation suffering little visual damage; larger infestations can kill leaves and cause the plant and the potential fruit or vegetables to suffer in quality. If mould should develop after the infestation, then the plant could suffer fatal consequences if left untreated. 

How to Treat Mealybugs

If you have been checking your plants and have found some mealybugs, knowing how to remove them is imperative to protecting your plants. The best method is to use cotton balls dipped in rubbing alcohol or treat the leaves with soapy water. Due to mealybugs' waxy exterior, typical chemical sprays will simply not affect them in the same way. If you are dealing with a more significant infestation, you will need a more robust solution, like insecticidal soap spray, to remove the infestation entirely. 

Mealybugs thrive in greenhouses, so if you have been growing plants in a greenhouse in preparation for transplanting outside, you may unwittingly bring the mealybugs with you and introduce them to your flower garden or vegetable patch, where they will have an unlimited banquet to feast on. If you spot mealybugs in your patch, a great way to remove them is to bring in natural predators such as ladybirds or lacewings. 

When it comes to dealing with mealybugs in potted plants, a great way to prevent them from making your plants their home is by routinely changing the soil, removing any pests living in there already, and providing fresh nutrients for your indoor plants.