mealy bug
1
6.4
- noun
- /ˈmiːli bʌɡ/
:
cochinilla harinosa
- " The most destructive of these secondary pests will be aphids, leafminers, lygus bugs, thrips, grape mealy bugs, and leafrollers."
Things like spider mites, things like white flies, things like aphids, even things like mealy bugs.
- Things like spider mites, things like white flies, things like aphids, even things like mealy bugs.
- The four or five major insect offenders for house plants are mealy bugs, aphids, spider mites, fungus gnats, and whitefly.
Examples
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To prevent plant damage, it's important to regularly check for mealy bugs on your houseplants.
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The four or five major insect offenders for house plants are mealy bugs, aphids, spider mites, fungus gnats, and whitefly.
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It might also be creepy crawlies like, you know, it might be aphids that might be mealy bugs, might be white flies.
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The gardener found several mealy bugs on the leaves of the fruit trees, which were destroying the plants.
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She used an organic pesticide to eliminate the mealy bugs that invaded her garden.
Synonyms
1
8.2
A small insect that eats plant sap, looks covered in white powder, and often damages plants
1
7.3
A small insect that sucks plant sap and has a hard waxy covering
Surface Forms
Morphology
mealy + bug
This is a straightforward adjective + noun composition: if a learner knows 'mealy' (powdery, covered with a meal-like or waxy coating) and 'bug' (a small insect), they can infer it denotes a type of insect with a powdery/waxy covering. The meaning follows a regular modifier-noun pattern common across languages, so it is transparently derivable from the constituents.
Etymology
Mealy bug: The name mealy bug comes from the insect's white, powdery coating that makes the bug look like mealy, from the word 'meal' meaning fine flour. So, mealy bug means a small insect with a flour-like, cottony cover that eats and damages plants.