Is Your Indoor Garden Tormented by Mealybugs?

Mealybugs, mealybugs, why do you torment me and my houseplants?

It all started when I was a kid. I began indoor gardening at the age of 7. With coleus. I bought a beautiful, velvety coleus home from the drugstore and nurtured it, and it thrived.

I propagated the plant and ended up with something like 30 to 40 coleus. From there, I added to my plant collection with other types of houseplants. 

Mealybugs on Houseplants

All went along swimmingly, until I was about 12. And a mealybug invasion came in via a new houseplant. And the mealybugs had a feast. It was a smorgasbord like they hadn’t experienced ever before, it seems. 

I was a wreck. My houseplant kingdom was looking awful! 

It was the 1970s, so the traditional means of killing off mealybugs on houseplants was some sort of heavy duty chemical spray. Knowing no better, I used such a chemical on my houseplants. I followed directions to the letter, but the plants reacted terribly. I even lost a bunch of them to the shock of being hit by such a lethal chemical.  

(Mealybugs on coleus)

Up until then, I’d unknowingly been gardening organically. Needless to say, this experience brought me full circle back to organic gardening, which I do to this day—indoors and out. 

And do you know…..those mealybugs came back!! Again and again…… 

Mealybugs Keep Coming Back

Though I later moved out of the country and had to leave my plants with a family friend, mealybugs have followed me throughout my “indoor gardening career.” Little white fuzzy buggers they are. They get into cracks and crevices. And their favorite place to hide and feast is in the parts of leaves that are yet to unfold. 

So what to do about mealybugs? And can you ever get rid of them?

Yes and no. 

It is possible to get them under control to the point where you don’t have any visible mealybugs. Until the point where you get a spring in your step, because, could it actually be that they are gone!? 

Yes, but at some point they may come back. You can, however, force them into a sort of dormancy where they don’t drive you and your plants crazy. 

Below is a good video starring me 🙂 on how to do that.  

The bottom line is that some pests in your indoor garden are just natural. That’s something I’ve come to terms with over the years. 

A bugs gotta eat! Just not your entire plant. 

So the secret to indoor gardening success is to tolerate a low level of plant pests, like mealybugs. And when things get out of whack, pull out your defenses—like spraying them with isopropyl alcohol and water repeatedly until they’re gone, like I discuss in the video. This pushes the population down, so you can co-exist without either one of you going buggy!