Root Mealybugs
Mealybugs that live entirely below the soil line, on the roots and inside the root ball. The plant sulks and yellows for no visible reason, and you only find them when you tip it out of the pot.
Pest checklist
Four things to look for. If most of them match what you are holding, you are in the right place.
What gets rid of them
Gentlest option first. For most backyard cases the first one is enough, so try these in order and stop as soon as it works. If you do spray something, the product label tells you how — please read the notice further down.
1Inspect roots before you buy
Slide new plants out of the nursery pot and look at the outside of the root ball before you bring them home.
Try this first2Discard a badly infested plant
If the root ball is crusted with them, throwing the plant and its mix out protects the rest of the collection.
3Wash the roots and repot
Rinse every bit of old mix off the roots, throw that mix away, scrub the pot, and repot into fresh bagged mix.
indoor potting mix4Hot water treatment
Submerging the pot in water hot enough to bring the root ball to about 115°F kills them, but overshooting the temperature kills the plant, so use a thermometer.
digital instant read thermometer5Never reuse the old mix
Eggs and crawlers survive in leftover potting soil, so it goes in the trash, not back into another pot.
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Which plants get root mealybugs
Every plant we cover that gets root mealybugs, grouped by type — tap any one to open its page. A note beside a plant came from that plant’s own entry, because the same pest can be a minor nuisance on one plant and a serious problem on another. Plenty of plants we do not cover get it too.
Plant families hit hardest
Related plants often share the same problems, so if one plant in a family has it, check the others. The largest group here is Iridaceae, with 2 of the 6 affected plants.
- Iridaceae2 plants
When to treat
Check the roots any time a potted plant declines and the leaves show nothing. There is no on-plant symptom to wait for, so tipping a suspect plant out of its pot is the whole diagnosis.
Timing only — the label is the law
This page tells you when to watch for root mealybugs and when treating is worth considering. It is not a recommendation to apply any particular product. Read and follow the product label before you spray — under federal law the label is the legal instruction, and using a pesticide against it is illegal.
- Check the pre-harvest interval. Every product that’s cleared for an edible crop sets a minimum number of days between spraying and picking. Find it on the label before you spray anything you intend to eat.
- Check the re-entry interval before you or anyone else works in the treated area again, and use the protective equipment the label names.
- Confirm the product is registered for your crop in your state. This page groups many different crops together, and a product legal on one of them is not legal on all of them — state registrations differ too. Your state pesticide agency or local extension office can confirm both.
- Rates and mixing instructions come from the label, never from us. We don’t publish them because they differ by product and formulation.
Other problems on the same plants
If a plant gets root mealybugs, these are the problems it most often gets as well, so they are worth checking for while you are out there. They tend to appear together; one does not cause another.