Causes Of Mealybugs On Plants – Full List
You must first learn the causes of mealybugs on plants before you can get rid of them.
If you see white, waxy, cotton material on your outdoor succulents or houseplants, you may think it’s fungi, but they are mealybugs. These pesky little bugs can be frustrating for your plants as they feed on new growth in succulents.
Where Do Mealybugs Come From?
Mealybugs are found worldwide and thrive in warm, moist environments. You can find it in various plants, including fruit trees and succulents, and it can spread through contact with other plants.
An adult female begins the mealybug life cycle by laying 300 to 600 eggs, usually deposited on the underside of leaves. Then, the brown-yellow nymphs start to crawl all over the host plant two weeks after the eggs hatch.
On the other hand, males eventually develop wings through metamorphosis, whereas females continue to molt and grow larger with each molt. Female mealybugs outlive males; a mealybug generation can live and die in as little as a month.
In this case, it can be difficult to get rid of them, especially when generations overlap. So if you have them in your plants or just discovered them, you might want to find quick-fix solutions to removing them.
Mealybugs can spread very quickly if they’re not eliminated. These waxy bugs are caused by a variety of conditions that attract them. It can be overwatering, over-fertilizing, or even bringing the infected plant into your garden.
No matter the case, these little troublesome bugs should be removed quickly.
Here are some of the common causes of mealybugs:
What Causes Mealybugs Outdoors?
Overwatering
One of the leading causes of mealybugs is overwatering.
If you overwater your plants, you will attract mealybugs and other bugs, aphids, fungus gnats, scales, and spider mites. Overwatering strikes the proper soil moisture for such insects and bugs to thrive.
When you overwater your plants, you create high humidity levels around the plant, which bugs and other insects love.
High humidity levels arise because water will evaporate from the soggy soils around the plant, thus, creating the perfect environment for mealybugs to flourish.
Over-fertilizing
Another common reason why mealybugs are attracted to your plants is over-fertilizing. In most cases, it’s not just any fertilizer but nitrogen fertilizer. This is because nitrogen fertilizer leads to lush foliage, which mealybugs love to feed on.
They suck sap from their host plants and love succulents. Hence, you should use moderate fertilizer to avoid an excessively lush plant that attracts mealybugs.
What Causes Mealybugs Indoors?
Mealybugs are more common indoors than outdoors. This is because they prefer the humid conditions indoors to the dry and harsh conditions outdoors.
Using Contaminated Potting Soil
Planting indoors or in greenhouses gives you complete control of the growing conditions. However, this also poses some challenges that you should handle.
For instance, if you use contaminated potting soil, you will transfer the bugs from outdoors to your houseplants.
Inspect your potting soil and ensure it’s free from bugs, ants, and other things that may hinder the smooth growth of your indoor plants.
Fresh Produce Or Flowers From The Garden
Mealybugs may also be spread by taking freshly produced but contaminated flowers or fruits from the garden to your home. When these floors are placed next to your indoor plants, the mealybugs may spread and start feeding on them.
Therefore, you should always inspect the plants and fruits you bring to your home from the garden.
Fresh Produce or Flowers From the Store
Another source of mealybugs may be from the store. If mealybugs infected the plants or fruits you bought from the store, you might have transferred them unknowingly to your indoor plants.
New Plant
New plants are another source of mealybugs. Before placing your new potted plant next to other houseplants, inspect it thoroughly. If it has mealybugs, they will spread quickly and attack your old plants.
Before placing new plants next to your houseplants, monitor them for one week. And when you’re sure that it’s okay, you can now place it next to other houseplants.
Ants
Even though this is rare, ants can also spread mealybugs to indoor plants. Mealybugs produce honeydew as residue. This is a source of food for ants.
Therefore, ants may bring mealybugs to your indoor plants to feed on honeydew.
What Causes Mealybugs on Succulents and Plants?
Since we know what causes mealybugs to get to outdoor and indoor plants, we should also find out what causes them to attack succulents and plants.
Search For Food
The first one is self-explanatory. Mealybugs attack plants and succulents so that they can feed on them. Although these bugs can be found on foliage, they prefer succulents. Thus, you should protect your plants and inspect them often.
Overwatering
As stated earlier, mealybugs are attracted to overwatering. It doesn’t matter if it’s indoor plants or outdoor plants. If you overwater your succulents, these bugs will be attracted to the humid environment.
Over-fertilizing
Never over-fertilize your plants, more so with nitrogen fertilizer. The lush foliage the fertilizer creates is a food source for bugs such as mealybugs.
Infected Plants
Planting infected plants next to healthy ones is another major cause of mealybugs. When you do this, the bugs will spread quickly and give you problems.
How To Get Rid Of Mealybugs
If you’re tired of mealybugs destroying your plants, you can eliminate them with simple steps. However, staying away from insecticides would help as the bugs develop resistance.
1. Isolate the Affected Plant
If the mealybugs have only affected a few plants, separate them from the good ones. But if they are all over, then this method won’t work.
2. Use Water Pressure To Wash Them Away
Next, you should try to use a stream of water pressure and wash them off your plants. Nevertheless, this only applies to mild infestation.
It’s important to note that not all bugs will be washed off. Therefore, you may have to repeat this procedure several times.
3. Neem Oil
Neem oil is perfect for removing bugs as it’s a natural insecticide and fungicide. It’s non-toxic, making it suitable for beneficial bugs like honey bees if your plants are outdoors.
When using neem oil, ensure to dilute it and be patient, as it may take several days to see results.
4. Incorporating Beneficial Bugs
Instead of using insecticides, which may not work as mealybugs can resist them, use beneficial bugs. Visit your local store and acquire some beneficial bugs to feed on mealybugs. These include lacewing, mealybug destroyer beetle, and ladybugs.
This method applies to plants grown outdoors or in large greenhouses.
5. Use Insecticidal Soap
This is the best option if the infestation is out of hand. Insecticidal soap is a short-lived natural pesticide that damages the mealybugs’ outer layer, leading to dehydration and death in hours.
Inspect Mealybug Prone Plants Regularly
If you have mealybug-prone plants in your house or the garden, you should monitor them regularly. Such plants include cactus, jade, fuchsia, and croton.
Conclusion
Now that you understand what causes mealybugs, you must ensure you use the right amount of water and fertilizer and inspect plants from the store and potting soil.
But if you already have the bugs, you should get rid of this pest quickly to avoid affecting other plants.
We hope you have found all the vital information you’ve been looking for! Since you know what causes mealybugs, you should eliminate and control the spread of mealybugs in your indoor/outdoor plants.