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Buff coconut mealybug

Buff colored mealybugs with short waxy filaments pack on fruits, leaves and twigs, fruits stay small and black with sooty mold, and trees decline.

Nipaecoccus nipae Insect Fact sheet
Buff coconut mealybugs (Nipaecoccus nipae), waxy white clusters on a leaf
Photo: Cricket Raspet, CC BY, via iNaturalist

Crops it attacks

Atis Sugar apple Guyabano Soursop Niyog Coconut

Where the damage shows

On fruits, pods or nutsOn the leavesIn the stems, vines or trunk

When to act

Each week look at 10 fruits and shoot tips on 10 trees. Cut out or wash off single colonies. Act on the block when colonies spread to many fruits and you see few brown, puffed parasitized mealybugs.

How to prevent it

  • Bag atis and guyabano fruits early with paper or net bags. It keeps crawlers and the ants that carry them off.
  • Cut off and bag infested fruits and shoots, and gather fallen fruits, before crawlers spread.
  • Keep ants off the trunk with sticky bands and break their nests near the trees.
  • Check seedlings and scions before planting, and clean tools and sacks after working an infested tree.
  • Wash small colonies off with a strong jet of water.

Natural enemies and biological help

  • The tiny wasp Pseudaphycus utilis has brought buff coconut mealybug under control elsewhere. Protect wasps by spraying less.
  • Lady beetles such as the mealybug destroyer, lacewings and hoverfly larvae eat the colonies.

Not sure it is this one?

Many pests look alike. Send a photo to Anee, the smart farm technician in anee.io. She reads it with your crop, its age and the weather, and tells you what it most likely is and what to do first. In Tagalog or English.

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