Perhaps the most infamous and easily identifiable pest your plant can be plagued with, mealybugs often appear in cottony clustered masses on the underside of your plants leaves, in stem joints, and any hidden crevices of your plant.
Mealybugs are in the same family as scale, so their feeding pattern and damage are similar. They feed by sucking sap which can result in yellowing leaves, stunted growth, and, if left unchecked, plant death. They secrete a sticky honeydew substance which can lead to sooty mold and attract other pests.
The main difference between soft scale and mealybugs is that soft scale loses legs once they reach adulthood and become immobile, while mealybugs have legs and remain mobile through their entire lifecycle.
The cottony white webbing harbors crawlers and mealybug eggs, but you may see lone crawling mealybugs rummaging around your plant foliage as well. The crawlers are often white, oval, and have small wispy legs around their bodies– some species of mealybugs even have pronounced antennae or long tails. They tend to prefer plants with thicker foliage like hoya, monstera, and succulents, but can be found on any plant.
