mealybugs on Air Plant
Quick answer
If your Air Plant has mealybugs, the most likely cause is: Mealybugs are the most common houseplant pest to attack Tillandsia and a weak or stressed plant is far more susceptible to them. They are small, slow-moving pinkish, ovoid insects in the scale family with a powdery or feathery waxy covering; they produce a white waxy coating around themselves and their egg sacs that looks like a deconstructed cotton ball filling crevices and leaf bracts, and they feed on plant juices especially targeting healthy new shoots deep in the rosette.
Start here:
- 1. For a small colony, submerge the entire plant in water for an hour to flush the mealybugs out, then remove any remaining insects by hand with a moistened cotton swab.
- 2. Dispose of used swabs and cleaning supplies far away from your plants because mealybugs are highly airborne and can reinfest quickly.
Why Air Plant gets mealybugs
Tillandsia spp.
Mealybugs are the most common houseplant pest to attack Tillandsia and a weak or stressed plant is far more susceptible to them. They are small, slow-moving pinkish, ovoid insects in the scale family with a powdery or feathery waxy covering; they produce a white waxy coating around themselves and their egg sacs that looks like a deconstructed cotton ball filling crevices and leaf bracts, and they feed on plant juices especially targeting healthy new shoots deep in the rosette.
How to reverse mealybugs on Air Plant
- 1
For a small colony, submerge the entire plant in water for an hour to flush the mealybugs out, then remove any remaining insects by hand with a moistened cotton swab.
- 2
Dispose of used swabs and cleaning supplies far away from your plants because mealybugs are highly airborne and can reinfest quickly.
- 3
For an established infestation, apply a natural, nontoxic insect-killing spray at night when temperatures are lower so the solution evaporates slowly, spraying deeply between the leaves and on the undersides where mealybugs hide.
- 4
Repeat the spray biweekly and continue inspecting the plant for a few weeks because egg sacs the spray missed can still hatch; keep the plant isolated from other plants until all traces of mealybugs are eradicated.
Keep mealybugs off this Air Plant
Maintain healthy plants by providing proper care, because a plant struggling in less-than-favorable conditions is far more susceptible to mealybug attack; routinely inspect deep in old leaves and new growth where pests conceal themselves.