@Farms Weekly Theme: Monday Mealy Bugs (pseudococcidae)

These insects happen to be one of those that love warm climates and moist environments. They are classified as pest because they cause lots of harm to plants during their feeding process and in doing so also act as the agent of distribution of lots diseases that affect plants. Although from the phylum arthropoda, it doesn’t have one of those had shells similar to the classification. Their gender could be distinguish from their appearance, males are mostly smaller than the females who tend to have not wings and look more like nymphs whereas the males looks more like gnats.

Their life goes on in 3 stages, from egg stage through the larvae stage to the adult stage, their eggs takes about 10 days to hatch, their larvae are quite vigorous and may end up traveling across plants but adults are the most active and nuisance. They live for about a generation or two. Mealybugs ought to be dealt with immediately you notice them before the situation is escalated, at the early stages their damage is not so considerate however if allowed to populate it becomes very bad.

They feed on lots of crops, they are not very particular about the crops they attack however the most common ones are citrus, sugarcane, pineapples, grapes, coffee, cassava and orchids (indoor ornamentals at higher risk). They are mostly found on the roots, rhizomes and the back of leaves. They are quite difficult to get rid on when they infest your crops especially in the presence of ants, you may have to spray them repeated with insecticides. You can also use their natural predators against them, one of such effective predators is the ladybird and its larvae, they feed on them and get rid of them very quickly. Wasps and lady beetles may also be used against them or better still the weather or temperature since they prefer warm, direct cool air towards them and they will move if not run away.