Only a tenth to a quarter of an inch long, tiny mealybugs don’t look particularly dangerous. However, these voracious plant-suckers can literally suck the life out of your plants if you’re not careful.

Mealybugs are unarmored scale insects found in moist, warm habitats. They are considered pests as they feed on plant juices of greenhouse plants, house plants and subtropical trees and also act as a vector for several plant diseases. Some ants live in symbiotic relationships with them, protecting them from predators and feeding off the honeydew which they excrete.

I've grown house plants since I was a kid and never had any problems with insects until "something" brought mealybug into our Solar Room in 2017. Since then, it's been a constant battle. Every time, I think I have the mealybugs totally eradicated, one (and then a hoard) suddenly show up & I have to again fight to save my plant collection. Although I check daily and then treat any problem immediately, I've lost a large portion of my cacti/succulent collection (that took me over 30 years to put together) to either mealy bugs, scale, or else freezing to death indoors in recent years. This is the first time that I've ever seen a mealybug on an Amaryllis. Now, I have to worry about those, too, in addition to my cacti/succents, geraniums, and hibiscus.

So, I guess this is rather an "everyday thing."
Mealybugs can contaminate plants through the air because the males grow wings. A properly quarantined plant is not in the same room.

Knock on wood, I don't have any insect problem with my houseplants inside the rest of my home. Just those in the huge Solar Room. Frankly, I'm getting very discouraged over that entire matter. The Solar Room has hundreds of house plants. So, finding a single bug on just one plant (like this one) can end up being a really big problem.