Tip: Adult lacewings mainly feed on pollen, nectar and honeydew. For this reason, we generally recommend cultivating your house garden in a manner that is gentle on beneficial organisms. These include, for example, the larvae of lacewings, which can penetrate the protective waxy layer of mealybugs. Outdoors mealybugs spread unconstrained, only controlled by their natural predators. Although you might not see them, there may already be eggs inside. If some of the plants in the store are infested, you should also keep your hands off the other plants there. For this reason, you should always take a close look at the plant already when buying it – especially with cacti and orchids. Mealybugs are often introduced via infested indoor plants. Houseplants such as orchids are the main target of mealybugs How to prevent mealybug infestations? Unfortunately, not even the flowering garden inhabitants are safe from the mealybugs. Occasionally, they can also be found at the root neck, especially with cacti. The insects are coated with a white layer of wax-like substance and hide under the leaves or in leaf axils. Identifying the culprits is very easy, though. However, trees growing outside in the open air such as apple trees or Douglas fir can also get infested by various species of mealybugs. Another typical feature of mealybugs are white, greasy residues.Įspecially houseplants like succulents, cacti and orchids are a favourite of the mealybug. This will disturb the process of photosynthesis of the plant. In addition, this species releases honeydew, which is prone to sooty mould fungi. Like other plant lice, they suck out the high-energy plant sap and thus weaken the afflicted plant. If you find a pest on your plant that matches this description, it is very likely to be a mealybug. That being a white waxy layer and with many mealybug species also more or less pronounced white threads on their bodies. The mealybug is one of the easy to recognise species due to its characteristic appearance. The family of Homoptera includes a variety of different insects, such as scale insects and aphids, many of them classified as pests. After two days (sometimes a little more) the first small mealybugs hatch ready to go. Adult females lay many hundreds of eggs, which are protected by a waxy layer. What is more, the citrus mealybug also reproduces rapidly. Because of that, the infestation is not that apparent and takes longer to discover which makes it more challenging to control this species. A unique trademark of this species is that some of them live in the root area of plants. The female insects can get as big as half a centimetre, whereas the males remain a lot smaller. A commonly known species – especially on ornamental plants – is the citrus mealybug ( Planococcus citri). The family of the mealybugs includes about 1000 different species. The possible damage is much lower though than indoors. Between mealybugs also occur outside – for example on beech, apple or maple trees. But don’t worry, with our tips and tricks you will quickly get the situation under control and your plants will survive the mealybug attack unharmed. They reproduce faster and cause immense damage to your plants. Mealybugs thrive in warm and humid climates which is why they can often be found indoors such as in your living room or glasshouse.
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