How to Identify House Plant Bugs
Indoor gardening is not only a fun and rewarding hobby, but houseplants can also enhance your decor and add a sense of warmth to your living space. Most of the time your plants will be healthy and satisfied provided that you give them ample light, water and good potting mix. However, occasionally, no matter how well cared for they are, house plants can fall victim to pests and bugs. Fortunately, most house plants can be saved provided that the problem is caught early on and treated. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Know what types of house plants pests exist and how to identify them. There are a few different types of insects and bugs that commonly attack indoor plants, and the five most common are aphids, white flies, spider mites, scale insects and mealybugs. Aphids are very small, light green insects that are typically found on the undersides and stems of plants. Often, they are found in clusters, and you may notice a sticky residue, also known as "honeydew," near where they've been damaging the plant. White flies are tiny, sap-sucking flying insects with bright white wings. Spider mites are very hard to see, sometimes only the size of a pin tip, but they cause leaves to mottle and often leave thin, stringy residue on and around plants. Scale bugs come in both white and brown, are usually oval shaped and have a thick outer shell. Scale bugs tend to be slow moving, which makes them easy to catch and remove. Mealybugs are oval shaped, and they cluster together. They appear as white fuzzy growths on a plant, especially on stems and the under sides of leaves.
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Examine your plants regularly for visible insects and bugs. Be sure to not only look at the tops of the leaves, but also the undersides, as well as the stalks where they can sometimes hide. Even if your plants appear perfectly healthy, taking this type of preventative measure will help you to catch any problems very early on and be able to treat them before any significant damage is caused to your plants.
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Remove any larger, visible insects from plants by using a cotton swabs dipped in rubbing alcohol. This will work well to remove scale insects as well as mealybugs. The rubbing alcohol suffocates and kills them before they are able to continue to further damage the plant. Discard the cotton swab and its contents.
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Control crawling and winged insects, such as white flies with sticky traps, which are available at any garden center. Other non-chemical means of coping with house plant pests include utilizing a myriad of natural products, such as organic spider mite killer, indoor insect killer, Neem insecticidal soap and poison-less insect magnets, which are can be found at online gardening specialty stores, such as www.planetnatural.com. Using natural products is safer for your plants and in turn, better for you since you do not have to worry about touching or breathing in chemical products that are applied to your houseplants.
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Examine any house plants that you are interested in buying at the garden center or plant nursery very carefully before you opt to purchase them. Look at the leaves, undersides of the plant, the stem and even the top of the roots and soil to make sure that there are no obvious signs of insects or pest damage. By taking the time to ensure that the plant doesn't have an overt bug problem, you're helping to protect your existing plants from potential problems.
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