Jade plant/ Money Tree little red bugs
Location: London UK
December 14, 2010 7:22 am
Hi there
Recently I’ve been finding a number of little red bugs on my Money tree. They seem to co exist along with a white silky substance that is leaft in small blobs or long blobs on the plant, generally in the V junctions of the leaves. The bugs initially look white but on closer inspection are a light red, with a white fur. They seem to walk around individually, not in groups. I don’t know if they are mites, baby or adults, although they do vary in size from about a 10th of a mm to 2mm or more not including their long tail that consists of 2 long white hairs. I’m not sure if they continue growing into something else… They have 6 legs, 2 antenna, and that tail, as you can see from the images. I put the bug in my scanner and scanned at 9600 dpi, I really hope this helps as I can’t find any similar images on the web and would love my tree to survive. Thank you very much. Phil
Signature: n/a
Dear n/a,
Your plants have Mealybugs. Mealybugs often infest house plants. You should be able to find eradication information online now that you know their identity.
Pseudococcus longispinus – suppose to – but if we have a slide mounted specimen it will be much more easy to identify. 😛
Thanks kingha,
Our good friend and retired entomologist from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County has the motto that the only true sighting is “Dead and Spread” and that pains naturalist Clare Marter Kenyon who would much rather see butterflies and other insects alive.