What Are the Tiny White Bugs on Your Plants?

So you have noticed some tiny white bugs hanging out on your plants. What are they, and what do you do about them? We delve into these white, nutrient-sucking insects in this article.

What are Mealybugs?

Mealybugs are itty-bitty insects that wreak havoc on plants. Female mealybugs are soft oval insects that look fuzzy from their white wax covering. These insects only get up to 3mm in length.

Male mealybugs are winged insects. The males look like gnats. They have long tales of the white waxy substance.

Types of Mealybugs

There are three types of mealybugs most commonly found in greenhouses: citrus, long-tailed and obscure. The citrus and obscure are very similar. The citrus mealybug has shorter tail fibers or filaments and shorter side filaments than the obscure mealybug. The obscure mealybug has a thicker coating of wax than the citrus.

The long-tailed mealybugs have long tails and do not lay eggs. They give birth to live young.

Some other types of mealybugs are the mexican, miscanthus, root, and striped mealybugs.

What is the Life Cycle of the Mealybug?

Female mealybugs lay between 200 to 600 eggs in an ovisac. After laying the eggs, the adult females die. There are usually three nymph stages or instars for the females before they reach the adult stage.

The male nymphs create a white cocoon. Inside the coccon, a pupa and then a prepupa develop. After emerging as adults, male mealybugs only live a couple of days and seek out females for reproduction.

How Do Mealybugs Damage Plants?

Mealybugs have threadlike mouthparts. These mouthparts suck the nutrients out of the plants. As they suck the nutrients from the plants, the mealybugs also inject their saliva into the plant. Their saliva causes wilting and stunted growth.

Plants infested with mealybugs may have black spots on them from sooty mold that grows on the honeydew mealybugs excrete.

How Do You Get Rid of Mealybugs?

Mealybugs are hard to spot because of their size. Once the first batch of eggs hatch, they become more noticable.

mealybug on plant — Mealybug Infestation

If you spot mealybugs, immediately, quarantine your plant. Mealybugs do crawl to other plants if the plants are located close to one another.

Picking mealybugs off by hand is an option. Other options include natural enemies and chemical treatments.

Natural Enemies of Mealybugs

Mealybugs do have some natural enemies. Having an environment that attracts these beneficial insects reduces the chance of a mealybug infestation. These natural enemies are parasitic wasps, ladybugs, lacewings, spiders, and pirate bugs. One particularly helpful enemy is the mealybug destroyer ladybug.

Chemical Treatments for Mealybugs

Since mealybugs have a waxy coating protecting their exoskeleton, it is difficult to completely irradicate an infestation. Spot treatment is the best option for small homes and gardens.

Isopropryl Alcohol: Use 70% or less isopropryl alcohol diluting in water on a cotton swab to dab on the mealybugs.

Insecticides: Insectides such as neem oil, insecticidal soaps, and horticultural oil sprayed directly on the mealybugs may kill some especially if their waxy coating isn’t thick.

Be sure to retreat your plants every week until you stop seeing the mealybugs.

Good luck in the treatment of these insects. I have battled them, and it can take quite a long time to get rid of them.