It is found outdoors in the warmer parts of America, Europe, and Africa. They feed by inserting slender mouthparts into plant tissues and sucking the sap. Mealybugs are a quarantine problem on exported foliage and flowers. This is due to the fact that species cannot be accurately identified outside of the lab, so inspectors may treat all specimens as unknown species. Mealybugs are especially hard to wash out of floral ginger.
Eggs are straw yellow at first and deepen in color before hatching.
The eggs may hatch as soon as they are laid, giving the impression that young are born rather than hatching. Fewer eggs are laid when it is very hot or cool 77 F being optimum. After hatching, the crawlers leave the mother. They are flattened, oval, light yellow, six-legged insects, with smooth bodies. After molting, differentiation between male and female begins.