Pests: find out more MEALYBUG

Mealybug

The Pest

There are three common mealy bug species found in glasshouses.  The most common is the citrus mealy bug (Planococcus citri), the vine mealy bug (Pseudococcus affinis) is similar and is found on cactus, passiflora and tomato, and the long tailed mealy bug (Pseudococcus longispilus) is found on tropical plants.

Female mealy bugs are wingless, whitish scale like insects up to 4mm long.  They have filaments around the body and a waxy covering.  The males are winged, smaller and shorter lived than the females. 

Mealy bugs are difficult to control with pesticides because of their waxy covering and habit of feeding in sheltered places on the plant.  They can also develop resistance quite quickly.

Citrus mealybug

Mealybug on Tomatoes

Female mealy bugs when mature can lay up to 500 eggs in a white woolly egg mass but die after egg laying.  The long tailed mealy bug is slightly different since it produces live young. 

On hatching the young (crawlers) disperse to find suitable feeding sites. From egg to adult takes 4 weeks at 26-30°C and 8 weeks at 20°C.

Nymphs and adult females suck plant sap, causing distortion, yellowing, defoliation and produce honeydew which can lead to the growth of sooty moulds.

Mealybug Pseudococcus longispinus