Licorice Plant Bugs

Aphids

• Once in awhile, these voracious, nearly invisible little pests get a taste for licorice plant. They come in a variety of colors including green, brown, white, red and black and have soft bodies that may appear either fuzzy or waxy. They feed singly or in large groups and do not usually scurry when disturbed. They can either be winged or wingless.

Eliminating Aphids

• While aphids seldom kill a host plant, they can cause unsightly spotting and deposits of honeydew, which is the secretion they coat their host plants with. Commercially available pesticides are a sure way to eliminate them. If you would like to go a more natural route, you can introduce ladybugs into your garden, as they are a natural aphid predator.

Mealybugs

• While in the aphid family of Coccoidea, mealybugs are a much larger threat to not only your licorice plants, but to your entire garden. They are woolly in appearance, only 1 to 3 mm in length and shaped like an ellipse. They reproduce rapidly, are highly mobile at all life stages and are capable of destroying large plants very quickly. Since all life stages are destructive, the entire plant is at risk. The developing larva can burrow and infest the roots of the plant while the adults munch above-ground. Signs of mealybug infestation include nests which look like areas of fluff, sticky drops of honeydew on the plant, sooty mold that forms on the honeydew and the presence of ants. Ants nurture mealybugs as they like to feed on their honeydew.

Eliminating Mealybugs

• This is a tall order, as mealybugs quickly become resistant to pesticides. Changing your choice of chemical if you have a large infestation becomes necessary due to that fact. Choose chemicals that contain a wetting agent in order to kill the bug before its shell has a chance to repel the chemical. Manual removal of mealybugs with tweezers is a good way to nip new populations in the bud before they have a chance to take over. Prevention through diligent observation is your best bet, removing and killing the bugs as they appear.