Hattingh, V., & Tate, B.A. 1996a The pest status of mealybugs on citrus in Southern Africa.. Proceedings of the International Society of Citriculture I: 560-563.

Notes: [VIII International Citrus Congress, 12-17 May 1996, Sun City, South Africa.] Despite the potential of mealybugs to be highly damaging pests of citrus, they are presently of little or no economic importance as pests of this crop in most citrus growing regions of the world. Although mealybugs were also of little importance on citrus in most of southern Africa prior to the 1990s, they are now one of the key pests in most of this region. The change in status of this pest is attributed to a number of factors but especially changes in pest management practices. This change in status closely followed the commencement of widespread use of the insect growth regulator (IGR) pyriproxyfen for the control of red scale Aonidiella aurantii. Furthermore, bioassays conducted with Coccidoxenoides peregrinus, one of the two principal biocontrol agents of mealybugs on citrus in southern Africa, indicated that this hymenopteran parasitoid is sensitive to pyriproxyfen. This suggests that the widespread use of this product, possibly combined with the occurrence of a drought and a movement away from the use of organo-phosphate which previously suppressed mealybug populations, is primarily responsible for the upsurge in the pest status of mealybugs. (Planococcus citri is the most common and of the greatest economic importance. Of lesser importance is the oleander mealybug Paracoccus burnerae, Nipaecoccus viridis, Pseudococcus longispinus, P. calceolariae, Ferrisia virgata, F. consobrina and Delottococcus elisabethae.