Bug identification?

[Tropicaltoba]

I was hoping people could confirm if this was a mealybug destroyer larvae. I live in Canada in the prairies and took my plants out of my greenhouse cause they were infested with mealy bugs. About 6 weeks later I see a couple of these moving very quickly along a plant. I am curious how it would have gotten here, could it be something else?

[foresight]

Definitely destroyer.

[brian]

Yes, the destroyer larva look like bigger, uglier, fast-moving mealybugs. You are in luck to have them appear on their own.  I tried introducing them repeatedly into my greenhouse but they never took hold, though once I got a couple of generations before they died out.

[Tropicaltoba]

Thanks for confirming. It weird that they showed up seeing as though they are native to Australia and it can go down to -40 here. I don’t know of anyone around me who has a collection of tropical plants who would have released some into the wild. I personally did order some about 7 years ago before I had my greenhouse when I had an infested coffee bean tree, but otherwise I hadn’t even seen a mealybug for 6 years.

[brian]

You are lucky!   I have been fighting the same mealybug infestation for five years now.