Guest Author - Wendy Lee

Even I, when starting out with plants looked at a plant one day and thought it had white fluffy mold on it. After my teacher was done being amused he advised me that it was Mealy Bug. Many people have concerns about their plant having fungus on it only for it to actually be a member of the scale genus known as Psuedoccous. Now there are other types of scaly insect which look like little moles on your plant in the crotches of leaves and stems, the underside of leaves and on other assorted new growth. The difference with Mealy bug is that it is a soft bodied scale. They develop their ‘wooly’ coat as a form of waxy waterproof coating that protects them from the elements. As an insect on a whole they do not go through the usual metamorphosis, such as a butterfly would go through. Females stay as a nymph for most of their lives, rarely moving around except to find a better feeding spot. Males in some species of mealy bug have a wasp like stage in which they go from plant to plant. If you find a plant with this pest on it quarantine it as new born nymphs can crawl from plant to plant.

Mealy Bugs are a systemically dehabilitating parasite; they latch onto the surface of your plant and suck out the sap from there. Other than the obvious groupings of white fuzzies, distortion of new growth, i.e. mal-formed leaves and twisted, crooked new stems, as well as yellowing and falling of leaves are signs of this pest. Your plant and the structure it is sitting upon may develop a shiny, sticky coating often called honey dew, which may in turn develop sooty mold which looks like black freckles in said honey dew. This honey dew also attracts ants which are not going to interfere with your plant.

The best ways to devoid your plant of Mealy Bugs are more involved than a simple spraying or watering of your plant with insecticides. While these methods are effective for new generations of the insect, you may, for the betterment of the look of your plant as well as to rid it of breeding adults, individually scrape each bug off your plant. This can be achieved by using a sponge or soft brush soaked in your choice of pesticide; or by using your nails or flat utensil such as a knife to remove the bugs. Pesticides of choice would be rubbing alcohol (most common), insecticidal soap, or Malathion. However, with Malathion, the jury is out as whether or not is necessary to use such a vehement poison on houseplants and if it causes more damage than good. Finally, in large scale operations, Lady Birds (Cryptolaemus, also commonly called Lady Bugs) are used to control this and other parasitic pests. If you are using soaps or alcohol sprays repeat about once a week for a month to be sure to kill off new generations of the insect.