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Mealybugs are pests that can attack your indoor green plants, but also the garden plants, shrubs and fruit trees in your garden, thus harming their proper growth.
Under what conditions do mealybugs develop?
Scale insects love humidity and heat. So, if you overspray your plant’s foliage or if your interior suffers from humidity or lack of ventilation, you run the risk of finding mealybugs on your plant.
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Mealybugs are also common in spring or summer, even on garden plants, when temperatures are high and outdoor air humidity is higher.
What are the consequences for the plant?
Mealybugs are found on the inside of leaves or on young shoots. It is the female scale insects that attack the plants. In fact, if male scale insects have wings, female scale insects are immobile. Therefore, they live attached to the plant where they lay their eggs.
These insects are biting and sucking insects that feed on plant sap. By pumping their sap, mealybugs weaken the plant and hinder its growth. Added to this is the risk that the plant will develop a black deposit that looks like soot, called sooty mold. In fact, mealybugs secrete honeydew, a sweet despondency, which attracts fungi, but also different species of ants. This fungal disease is also dangerous for plants, because the black deposit that covers the foliage blocks the photosynthesis of its vegetation.
Scale insects are also harmful to fruit trees. In addition to destroying the harvest, they risk condemning their vegetation.
How to eradicate mealybugs?
White vinegar and black soap
Put water in a spray bottle and add a teaspoon of liquid black soap and a teaspoon of white vinegar. Then spray on the infected parts of your plant, morning and evening. Avoid using this natural insecticide on your plant in the middle of the day, so as not to burn it in the sun. Repeat this operation daily until the mealybugs are completely eradicated. Note that white vinegar is also effective against aphids and bindweed.
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