How to Get Rid of Mealybugs: 6 Steps for Controlling Mealybugs

Mealybugs are white bugs that feed on the nutrients in host plant leaves, leaving behind a waxy coating of damaging honeydew, sooty mold and mildew, and powdery, cottony white secretions that eventually do damage to the entire plant or succulent.

Like with aphids, spider mites, whiteflies, and other garden pests, the short life cycle of these plant pests doesn’t prevent them from doing a lot of damage in their time. Female mealybugs—adult females are also known as nymphs—can lay up to six hundred eggs at a time, so it’s important to control mealybugs early. These crawlers routinely hide in the crevices of potted houseplants’ leaves, as well as the undersides and hard-to-find spots of garden plants. If you don’t enact mealybug treatment fast enough, yellowing plant leaves can begin to take over the entire organism until they drop off completely.

Mealybugs are particularly drawn to warm climates—so you’re more likely to deal with them in greenhouses or indoors unless you live in a fairly warm area. Orchids and coleus plants are particularly susceptible to mealybug attacks.

All mealybugs are part of the Pseudococcidae family of scale insects, but there are many different types within that grouping. Here are three of the most prominent species of mealybugs:

1. 1. Citrus mealybug (Planococcus citri): This bug prefers citrus plants specifically. Although its desire for these acidic, juicy fruits and their plants is notable, citrus is one of the main targets for all types of mealybugs.
2. 2. Longtailed mealybug (Pseudococcus longispinus): This bug is notable for its appearance—its body stretches out, and it has a long tail.
3. 3. Pink hibiscus mealybug (Maconellicoccus hirsutus): This bug gets its name for how readily it attacks hibiscus plants and flowers, although it can feast on a wide variety of other host plants, too.

To get rid of mealybugs, you have several options. Make your way through this six-step pest control guide to see what will work best for your infested plants:

1. 1. Practice defensive strategies. Mealybugs often spread throughout a garden or amid indoor houseplants when new plants arrive or new growths form, so it’s important to be on defense whenever you’re introducing new plants. An ornamental plant in a warm greenhouse could be carrying mealybugs without anyone being aware of it, so it can be wise to quarantine any new plants to see if a mealybug infestation appears on its leaves after taking it home. This will prevent spread to any others and lead to fewer infected plants as a result.
2. 2. Make homemade insecticidal soap. Before purchasing any insecticides, you can likely make do with implements from around the house. Combining a small amount of dish soap or isopropyl alcohol with a large amount of water into DIY sprays and solutions can usually be enough to kill mealybugs.
3. 3. Consider store-bought insecticides. If the outbreak is severe enough or you’re not comfortable making your own insecticidal solution, there are plenty of products you can buy to handle a mealybug problem. You can use neem oil, other horticultural oils, or more chemically based products to take care of the issue.
4. 4. Assess the mealybug infestation size. Discerning how big of a mealybug outbreak you have can help you decide how to best address it. A smaller infestation may just mean dipping a cotton ball in a rubbing alcohol and water solution and cleaning up the limited area they’ve taken over. A larger breakout may mean forgoing the cotton swab, putting a contact insecticide into a spray bottle, and spraying down the entire plant.
5. 5. Repeat the treatments. No matter how big the outbreak, repeat your treatment processes daily for at least a week—there are almost always more mealybugs than you think there are once you’ve noticed an infestation. Repeated spraying or swabbing will take care of all of them.
6. 6. Introduce natural enemies. If you’d prefer to take a more hands-off approach to your mealybug issue, consider introducing mealybugs’ natural predators into their environments. This can be a more suitable solution if your mealybug problem is outside—you should keep indoor plants and areas as bug-free as possible. Beneficial insects like lacewings and ladybugs eat mealybugs and other plant pests. Wasps also attack mealybugs. There’s even a bug known as the mealybug destroyer (Cryptolaemus montrouzieri).

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