Heres how to protect your plants from these insects.
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Mealybugs can affect all types of crops, ornamentals, and houseplants, including succulents and cacti.
Outdoors, mealybugs have natural predators to keep their numbers in check.
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But indoors in your nice, cozy house, their numbers can increase quickly.
Unfortunately, these tiny insects are difficult to manage, especially if you dont catch them early.
They use their piercing-sucking mouthparts to feed on plant cells and eventually can kill the plant.
Mealybugs have a distinctive appearance.
They are elliptical, flattened insects covered with a white, waxy or fuzzy-looking material that serves as protection.
Some species also have long filaments that extend from their posterior ends.
Mealybugs often are confused with scale, a related pest that also hides under a waxy protective coating.
But scale pests dont move around, and mealybugs do, says Del-Pozo.
Male mealybugs have wings, females do not.
Indoors, multiple generations overlap, if left unchecked.
If the plant is failing, its likely already too late to stop the infestation, says Del-Pozo.
