• 🌱 *Know ur plants and trees*
  *All about Mealy Bugs..Pseudococcidae*
  The most common infestation in our plants is by *Mealy Bugs* which are sap sucking insects as they feed on the plant juices by piercing their sharp sword like mouth into plant’s phleom. Phleom gives the plant it’s nutrition and vigour and the mealy bug deprives the plant of this nutrition thereby killing it. There r more than 300 types of male and female mealybugs eg., mango mealybug, citrus mealybug, cotton mealybug, greenhouse mealybug, longtailed mealybug, root feeding mealybug, etc. They have a white waxy protective coating on their back.They love moist warm habitats. They r also carriers of many plant diseases and viruses. Some variety of ants have a symbiotic relationship with them as they protect the mealy bugs from predators and feed off the honeydew that these mealybugs excrete. Ants love these treats so much that they carry them to fresh plants as well.
  Mealy bugs movement is restricted…so they r generally transmitted when we bring in a infected plant to our garden, by infected instruments, ant movements, air currents, birds and animals, humans through their clothes, etc.
  Mealybugs attach themselves to vital parts of the plant like fruit, root, plant crowns, leaves, etc. The eggs r laid in cottony sacs in above parts.
  Mealy bug infestation needs to be controlled at the initial stage itself as they have the capacity to destroy crops in large scales very fast leading to huge economic losses.

Tips/Measures to control mealy bug will be discussed in further episodes.

🙏 *Thank You*🙏