Overwatering does cause mealybugs to be attracted to the plants.
Your plants can get mealybugs when you over water or over fertilize the plants which increases nitrogen levels and soft growth which is what attracts mealybugs.
Mealybugs are commonly found in houseplants and are attracted to plants with soft growth and high nitrogen levels.
For this reason, it's important to avoid over watering and over-fertilizing your plants to prevent mealybugs from getting onto your plants.
Mealybugs can infest your house and can also be brought in the house through bringing outdoor plants inside or bring indoor plants back inside when you take them out.
The mealybugs can also get into the house through cracks, holes and crevices in the house and infest the house and plants inside.
You can use Dawn dish soap or other dish soap to get rid of and kill mealybugs.
Dawn Dish Soap and other dish soap will get rid of and kill mealybugs by suffocating the mealybugs and disrupt the mealybugs ability to breathe and cause death.
Rubbing alcohol is what kills mealybugs instantly.
Vinegar will get rid of and kill mealybugs and even rubbing alcohol can kill and get rid of mealybugs.
You can spray the plants and or mealybugs with a mixture of 1 part vinegar and 3 parts water to kill and get rid of the mealybugs.
You can kill mealybugs using insecticides or use rubbing alcohol and some water to kill the mealybugs.
The best killer for mealybugs is a mixture of 70 percent or less solution of rubbing alcohol and water which can be dabbed directly onto mealybugs or you can spray the mealybugs with the mixture as well.
Getting rid of a mealy bug infestation can take several weeks to several months depending on how bad the mealybug infestation is.
Mealybugs can infest your house especially if you have houseplants or bring plants indoors from outside.
Mealybugs will also infest almost any plant in greenhouses, businesses or homes.
Mealybugs can live in grass and I have noticed significant infestations of mealybugs in my grass.
Light infestations of mealybugs are also found in residential and commercial lawns including athletic fields, parks, pastures, hay fields, rights of ways and naturalized areas.
The natural predator of the mealybug includes the lady beetles, green and brown lacewings, spiders, minute pirate bugs, and larvae of predaceous midges.
Mealy Bugs turn into winged adult mealy bugs.
Some species of mealybugs give birth to live young.
And after several weeks, the nymphs develop into adults.
Male nymphs secrete a tiny, fluffy cocoon and develop into winged adults.
Mealybugs are a type of insect in the family Pseudococcidae, unarmored scale insects found in moist, warm habitats.
Of the more than 2000 described species of mealybugs, many are considered pests as they feed on plant juices of greenhouse plants, house plants and subtropical trees and also act as a vector for several plant diseases.
Mealybugs are not harmful to humans.
However, they can be harmful to plants because they feed on sap.
This leads to yellowing leaves, slower growth, and in extreme cases, death of the plant.
Mealybugs like lush foliage, so avoid over-fertilizing with excess nitrogen.
A citrus mealybug nymph crawls along a leaf.
If mealybugs are present on only a few, small plants, you can try to reduce or eliminate infestations by washing off the plants.
Ground mealybugs (family Rhizoecidae) are soil-dwelling insects that suck and feed on basal stems and roots.
They develop through three life stages.
Eggs hatch into nymphs that grow through several increasingly larger instars before maturing into adults.
Adults grow up to 1/16- to 3/16 inch long.
Mealybugs thrive in crevices between branches in the interior of the plant where it is hard to spray them.
Another issue is that one female can lay up to 600 eggs, quickly expanding their population.
Once mealybugs are found on a plant, it needs to be isolated from other plants to prevent the infestation from spreading.