How to Use mealybug in a Sentence

mealybug

noun
  • In containers, the main pests to look for are thrips, mealybugs, and aphids.
    — Abigayle Ward, Hartford Courant, 20 July 2024
  • For a few aphids, mealybugs, or spider mites, a strong spray of water is often enough to knock them off.
    — Sheryl Geerts, Better Homes & Gardens, 7 May 2025
  • This treatment should also help avoid mealybugs, mites, thrips, and whiteflies.
    — Southern Living Editors, Southern Living, 15 June 2023
  • The most common pest is mealybugs that look like white masses of cotton attached to the leaves.
    — Arricca Elin Sansone, Country Living, 28 Feb. 2021
  • The most common culprits are mealybugs, teeny insects that suck the sap out of the plant.
    — Leanne Potts, Better Homes & Gardens, 21 Nov. 2024
  • When bay leaf grows indoors, monitor the plants for mealybugs and spider mites.
    — Lauren David, Better Homes & Gardens, 28 July 2024
  • Dogs can also be trained to detect the pheromone of the female mealybug, which damages the vineyard.
    — Allison Futterman, Discover Magazine, 3 Aug. 2023
  • Check for summer pests of mealybugs and scale insects; control with natural sprays.
    — Tom MacCubbin, OrlandoSentinel.com, 1 July 2017
  • Some like the soap and oil sprays are contact insecticides that must hit the mealybugs to be effective.
    — Tom MacCubbin, Orlando Sentinel, 15 June 2024
  • The citrus mealybug, Planococcus citri, is a a sap-sucking plant pest barely an eighth of an inch long.
    — Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 19 Aug. 2011
  • The aphid-like insect was identified as an Asian scale, also known as a mealybug, in April.
    — Tristan Baurick, NOLA.com, 31 May 2017
  • Visible pests, like mealybugs and spider mites, tend to hang out under plant leaves or in the nooks and crannies between leaves and stems.
    — Lauren Landers, Better Homes & Gardens, 9 Jan. 2025
  • Scale, aphids, mealybugs, and spider mite outbreaks occur on occasion.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 12 Feb. 2025
  • Yet that often has little effect in containing the disease, which is spread by tiny white insects called mealybugs.
    — Olivia Konotey-Ahulu / Bloomberg, Time, 6 Sep. 2019
  • Look beyond the black coating for insects including mealybugs, whiteflies and scale that are sucking juices from the plant.
    — Tom MacCubbin, OrlandoSentinel.com, 27 May 2017
  • Aphids, mealybugs, and scale insects are particularly fond of lemon cypress trees, but these pests are treatable.
    — Lauren Landers, Better Homes & Gardens, 19 Dec. 2024
  • Warm, humid conditions also breed mealybugs, which can spread an infection that spoils cacao crops.
    — Maya Huter, NBC News, 13 Feb. 2025
  • Whether a caterpillar has chewed away part of a leaf or a mealybug is sucking on sap, animals are constantly feeding on plants.
    — Jacob S. Suissa, The Conversation, 20 June 2024
  • Occasionally, mealybugs may make their home in this succulent.
    — Lauren David, Better Homes & Gardens, 7 Oct. 2024
  • Phillip and Beazley have found mango weevil, pink hibiscus mealybug and citrus canker.
    — Laura Reiley, Washington Post, 27 Nov. 2019
  • Another easy way to reduce aphid, mealybug and whitefly populations on sturdy plants is to knock them off with a strong spray of water in the morning.
    — Debbie Arrington, sacbee, 22 Dec. 2017
  • Related to aphids, scales, and mealybugs, whiteflies can cause significant harm in greenhouses.
    — Arricca Elin Sansone, Southern Living, 5 Dec. 2024
  • Common Pests and Plant Diseases Scale and mealybugs are common pests that invade pineapple plants.
    — Grace Haynes, Southern Living, 11 Mar. 2024
  • Lady Beetles Adult lady beetles eat aphids, mites, and mealybugs, and their hungry larvae do even more damage to garden pests.
    — The Editors Of Organic Life, Good Housekeeping, 11 May 2016
  • Some insect activity and sooty mold can be tolerated by the plants, plus natural controls may help eliminate the mealybugs.
    — Tom MacCubbin, Orlando Sentinel, 29 Apr. 2023
  • Their main food sources are energy-rich liquids, such as the honeydew produced by insects like scale bugs and mealybugs and nectar secreted from specialized glands on plants.
    — Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 5 Apr. 2025
  • Examine houseplants and tropicals before bringing them indoors and discard any that are full of whitefly, scale, mealybugs or other tenacious pests.
    — Washington Post, 29 Oct. 2019
  • Thus, Tremblaya and Moranella work together to produce essential amino acids for themselves as well as the ones that the mealybug cannot find in its strict sap diet.
    — Quanta Magazine, 3 Oct. 2019
  • At some point, the Tremblaya genome shrank so much that the bacterium’s amino acid production machinery gummed up, forcing the mealybug to recruit a second partner to pick up the slack.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 21 Nov. 2011
  • Tremblaya helps to supply the mealybug with essential amino acids and likely receives nutrients and other life-sustaining molecules in return.
    — Quanta Magazine, 20 June 2013

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'mealybug.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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