Mealy Bugs Attack!!
These annoying little pests infiltrated my Hoya carnosa ‘Krimson Queen’ so I went on the offensive today to try to stop them!
A beautiful sight ruined by an ugly pest.
This Hoya lives in a remote part of my house and I didn’t notice these little pests slowly infiltrating until it was too late. Their trick is to hide in the underside of the leaves and the crooks in the stems. They thrived there until today when they got too greedy, venturing to the tops of the leaves and into my view.
The jerks in action on the undersides of my leaves
What is a mealybug?
A very common houseplant pest, they can travel indoors on our shoes, hands and clothing. They can also come in with your plant, as it’s a common pest in greenhouses. Mealys feed off of your houseplants by piercing the surface of the leaf and extracting nutrients from the inside. Eventually, they will kill your plant, but often you’ll first notice either the bugs themselves as I did, or your plant’s leaves will brown and die at an alarming rate.
Mealy bugs are tiny: the males are often not visible to our eye, and the females are up to 1/4 cm in length. You’ll likely notice their eggs first, often on the undersides of leaves, along the stems, and at leaf nodes (the point on the stem where new leaves grow). They leave behind a sticky sap and lay fluffy white egg clusters everywhere on your plant, including in the soil. Since they’re mobile, they are highly “contagious”, and one plant can catch them from another. Since they’re tiny and white, it’s nearly impossible to eradicate them.
Nightmare scenario, right?
Totally!! What did you do about it?
Our hero
Image: Amazon
It was raining today, so I set up a cleaning station on my screened in porch. I covered the wooden table with a plastic bag, and moved any nearby plants far away. This is critical, because as you clean them off you don’t want to spread them to other plants.
I grabbed my supplies:
a roll of paper towels
a box of Q-tips
another trash bag (2 total)
Insecticidal Soap, the kryptonite of the Mealybug world.
Insecticidal soap is a natural pest control solution that breaks down the protective cuticle layer (think skin) on the outside of the bugs’ bodies. When this is compromised, they dehydrate and die. It’s also relatively thick, and works on some bugs by suffocating them.
TIP: If you can, rinse off your plant OUTSIDE ONLY, using your hose. Be careful not to spray all over yourself, and try not to injure your plant. You can remove most of the surface bugs quickly this way and save some time cleaning.
I got started by spraying a few leaves top and bottom with the soap. Working up from the base of the stem, I wiped the entire surface with a paper towel. Most important part: I changed out the paper towel OFTEN, like every few leaves, to prevent myself from spreading the bugs around the plant even more.
TIP: You might find it’s also helpful to saturate the paper towel with the soap, depending on what kind of plant you’re working with.
A healthy and happy Hoya ‘Krimson Queen’
Image: landofalicestudio on Etsy
Once I’d wiped down the entire plant, I soaked the end of a Q-tip in the soap and went back over every stem, nook and cranny of the plant. I wanted it really soaking because some of these areas are tiny. In a tight spot, I applied a tiny bit of pressure to let some of the soap seep out of the Q-tip and into those areas. As with the paper towels, I swapped out the Q-Tip with each new area of the plant I was working on.
Next, I went over the pot itself and thoroughly wiped it down with fresh paper towels and soap. I checked the inside rim, the surface of the soil, and the outside for bugs.
When I felt like I’d gotten all the bugs I could see, I gave my plant a nice, hearty drink of water and put it in quarantine where it can get adequate sunlight but not be near other plants. I’ll check it again in a day or two and repeat the cleaning process at least once a week for about 2 weeks. If I see new bugs on the leaves in the meantime, I’ll clean it again at that point.
That seems like a lot of work…
It did take me a fair amount of time to clean this plant, maybe 30 minutes in all, which is a lot for a small plant. But it is incredibly meditative. Despite the fact that I was worried about my plant, I felt calm and de-stressed at the end of the process, and excited to have served it and saved it from suffering.
It’s also simple to gather the necessary supplies to get the job done: I already had paper towels, plastic bags, and Q-tips onhand, and the soap is easily found at any garden center or online garden store for a low price.
You can also adopt preventive plant care habits that will make you less likely to ever get a mealybug infestation:
Check all new plants you bring into your home for signs of pests and clean them off and quarantine at that point. When there are fewer of them, the cleanup is much faster.
Wipe down the leaves of your houseplants regularly. If you can prevent them from becoming dirty and dusty, the plants will be healthier and happier, you’ll disrupt and remove any bugs that may be on your leaves, and you’ll eliminate the kinds of conditions mealybugs love to live in. Win / win / win!!
When I conduct plant care visits for my clients, I thoroughly inspect the leaves and stems for signs of trouble. When necessary, I clean and prune their plants to encourage full, healthy growth. This is the best way to ensure plants stay healthy and happy. Just as we go to the doctor and dentist for regular checkups, so does your plant need regular cleanings.
But a pest infestation can happen to ANYONE, even a houseplant expert! In the case where you miss something, or a bug takes off faster than you could have imagined, or your plant’s not showing any signs of stress like mine, it’s a relatively easy fix to make it healthy again.
Check out the video below to see the process in action!
And if you’d rather have someone else look after your plants for you, check out our Plant Care options, schedule a Plant Chat, or call our Hotline to learn more!
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