diff --git a/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/spymemcached-2.12/src/main/java/datadog/trace/instrumentation/spymemcached/MemcachedClientInstrumentation.java b/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/spymemcached-2.12/src/main/java/datadog/trace/instrumentation/spymemcached/MemcachedClientInstrumentation.java
index 90e016a369..3df5b09a8c 100644
--- a/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/spymemcached-2.12/src/main/java/datadog/trace/instrumentation/spymemcached/MemcachedClientInstrumentation.java
+++ b/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/spymemcached-2.12/src/main/java/datadog/trace/instrumentation/spymemcached/MemcachedClientInstrumentation.java
@@ -82,6 +82,11 @@ public final class MemcachedClientInstrumentation extends Instrumenter.Configura
         .asDecorator();
   }
 
+  @Override
+  protected boolean defaultEnabled() {
+    return false;
+  }
+
   public static class AsyncOperationAdvice {
 
     @Advice.OnMethodEnter(suppress = Throwable.class)
diff --git a/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/spymemcached-2.12/src/test/groovy/datadog/trace/instrumentation/spymemcached/SpymemcachedTest.groovy b/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/spymemcached-2.12/src/test/groovy/datadog/trace/instrumentation/spymemcached/SpymemcachedTest.groovy
index 30a37607f7..6d8ed6d5e0 100644
--- a/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/spymemcached-2.12/src/test/groovy/datadog/trace/instrumentation/spymemcached/SpymemcachedTest.groovy
+++ b/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/spymemcached-2.12/src/test/groovy/datadog/trace/instrumentation/spymemcached/SpymemcachedTest.groovy
@@ -32,6 +32,10 @@ import static net.spy.memcached.ConnectionFactoryBuilder.Protocol.BINARY
 
 class SpymemcachedTest extends AgentTestRunner {
 
+  static {
+    System.setProperty("dd.integration.spymemcached.enabled", "true")
+  }
+
   @Shared
   def parentOperation = "parent-span"
   @Shared