My alata wasn't looking bad but hasn't put on much growth and this is the time of the year it should be going crazy. It had a few mealies while in the greenhouse over the winter which I thought had been eliminated. I checked the stems and foliage and didn't see anything. A couple days ago I noticed ants but still didn't see any aphids, scale or mealies but thought that maybe the ants had taken up residence in the pot. I decided to repot it in case the ants were there and when I unpotted it the portion of the main stem that was below the soil was completely encrusted with mealy bugs! There was a solid 2" of stem that looked white because there were so many. I hosed off all the soil and removed the mealies then hosed it off again and repotted in a new pot with fresh soil. Hopefully I got them all. I've never seen mealy bugs below the soil. Is that common? I usually see then on the stems and the undersides of the foliage.