Houseplant Pests: Your houseplants spend all of their time at home as the temperature, sunlight and humidity cannot be greater. This makes it easier for plant insects to enter indoors.
Pests are not natural predators and can quickly grow in a population. Don’t wait for plants in your home to feel uncomfortable.
Regularly check your houseplants for signs of pests and diseases. Catching them early is an ideal opportunity to save your home plants.
7 Houseplant Pests And How to Get Rid of Them
1. Thrips
These small insects (less than 1/25 inch) can do a lot of damage to plants. They eat in groups, sucking leaves, flowers and even fruit.
In addition to weakening plants and impeding growth, they also transmit diseases.
Since there are no natural predators inside, you should use some kind of contact pesticides, such as semi-soaps or pesticides. Make sure to cover all sides of the leaves.
2. Leafminers
Wavy lines across the paper are a sure sign of leafminers. They usually look like insects of outdoors, but they can go indoors and can feed on plants.
Leafminers are small black fly larvae. The fly lays its eggs on leaves and larvae feeds through the leaves until they appear.
You can hold adults with blue tape and remove damaged leaves to prevent the appearance of new flies. There are some pesticides that will control miners, such as Spinosad, but they are usually not necessary in homes.
3. Mealybugs
Mealybugs are common houseplant pests. Often times, the damage is just cosmetic. Damage to edible vegetables, such as tomatoes and spinach, can destroy crops, but in an indoor plant, they are just ugly.
mealybugs look like small white spots fluttering, which are usually associated with plants in the trunk joints, but they are also found with trunks.
They feed on plants by suction. plants suffering from mealybug infestation, they often appear dry even after watering
Mealybugs are very difficult to remove. If you notice them on houseplants, cut off the affected branches. You can also rub the mealybug with a cotton ball soaked in isopropyl alcohol.
If your plants are severely affected, it is best to get rid of them. Flour pigs will only spread.
4. Scales
The scales are small insects that stick to the stem of the plant and then cover with a solid oval projectile. Like bugs, it also slowly sucks the liquid of plants, Leaving them very weak.
Eliminating scales infection is very difficult. Insecticides often do not penetrate into their solid shells. You may be lucky to scrub scales with your nails or with a soft brush.
Small scales should be removed unsafe to settle in a new location, and pesticides can be sprayed on tracks at this location. Soap has little effect on protected adults.
5. Spider Mites
Spider mites leave yellow stripe on the leaves, especially in the inner joints of plants and in lush plants. They harm plants by absorbing their juices.
With increased infestation, the leaves become completely yellow, break easily and die quickly.
Carefully spray the affected plants with pesticide soap to get rid of the pests.
6. Springtails
Springtail is a small insect-like creature without wings that can jump several inches in the air. Perhaps you will not notice them unless there are many. In a group and grow together, you can see them as a small cloud.
They prefer wet areas, such as wet potting soil. Although springtails can nourish the roots when in the ground, it doesn’t hurt the plants much.
However, if the soil is dry, Koloboolo will seek moisture elsewhere, such as a basement or bathroom, where it can cause disturbances.
7. Whiteflies
These little whiteflies hide under leaves and fly in the cloud when you feel upset. It absorbs leaves and tree trunks, weakens plants and causes deformation.
Whiteflies reproduce very quickly, so catching them soon will make them easier to get rid of.
You can catch them with yellow adhesive nets and spray them with insect soap or gardening oil. Contact spray bugs to work.
8. Aphids
Aphids appear as small green, white, yellow or black spots that can appear on all parts of the plant. They weaken plants by absorbing trunks and foliage.
Avid can multiply so quickly that the envelope the plants within a few days.
Aphids are soft-bodied insects and can be easily killed by a powerful water jet in the bathroom or by repeated spraying with pesticides.
But it is permanent and you should be careful to dispose of the plants in your home.
9. Fungus Gnats
Fungus Gnats are common houseplant pests. These are small flies that float around plants at home and fly in the cloud when bothered. Adults do not cause significant damage, but in the larval stage, organic waste and coke are opened in the soil along with the feeder’s roots.
They prefer moist soil and have a bigger problem with indoor plants than outdoor plants.
You can hunt adults with yellow adhesive webs, which reduces the population. Leave the soil to dry completely for several days, to kill the eggs and larvae present. Try using dried leaves to prevent pests.
