Facts About the Mealy Bugs
INTRODUCTION
Mealy Bugs are small, soft, wax-covered insects that you can find in the garden or on indoor plants. Mealy Bugs are usually found in colonies of adult females, nymphs, and eggs, piercing and sucking on plants, leaving honeydew behind. Mealy Bugs favor warm weather and don’t usually appear in places with cold winters. Generally, Mealy Bugs are seen as pests for house plants and feed on their sap, hiding in roots or other cracks, or at the bottom of the fruit, often leading to a black sooty mold on the plant. They have soft, segmented bodies, covered in white powdery wax, which they use to protect themselves. There are approximately 275 different species of Mealy Bugs in the United States.
Some Mealy Bugs have caused serious economic damage due to their choice of food, feeding on mangos, sugarcane, grapes, pineapple, coffee, and citrus. They attach to the plant and as they feed on the sap, they secrete a powdery wax layer to protect themselves.