The female Mexican mealybug adult is 3 to 4 mm long, oval, grayish and covered with a thin waxy secretion. There are three parallel rows of small waxy tufts down the back. The lateral filaments are also short.
Males are small gnatlike insects with only two wings.
Adult Mexican mealybug males have four waxy, posterior filaments. The egg sac is white, dense, narrow, and longer than the female secreting it. The nymphs are small and yellowish with white waxy secretions. From Mexico the mealybug has spread throughout the United States, Hawaii, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. It survives in greenhouses and on houseplants in temperate climates and outdoors in subtropical areas of the United States.