Insects On Indoor Plants
Posted by Owen Jones in Uncategorized, tags: gardening, hobbies, home, home improvement, insects, interior design, leisure, nature, other, outdoors, pests, plants, recreation, UncategorizedMany people like to bring nature into their dwellings in the form of plants. Fortunately there is a broad range of plants that have adapted to the conditions in which we live. They have become used to the reduced light, twenty-four hour warmth and the continuously dry environment. Some more than others, it is true, but most people go for house plants that are easy to maintain.
For most people ‘easy to maintain’ means giving the plant a cup of water each week. However, some individuals are willing to take more trouble with their indoor plants and spray them with a mist of water, dust them off and feed them from time to time as well. The more time you spend on your plants, the more likely you will be to spot infestations of pests.
Some pests thrive under the same conditions that these plants like. If you merely pour a cup of water over your plants once a week, you might not notice populations of insects thriving on your plants until they have done lots of damage or even killed the plant. Actually, insects hardly ever kill their host household plants, but they will often make the plant fairly ill.
This sickness may show up as fading leaves, leaves dying and falling off, leaves becoming mottled or curling or a wilting stem. Usually, problems come when the soil is overly damp too. This is a condition that may come about if you only water one time a week and then give too much water to make it last a week.
Red spider mites are a common household plant insect pest that thrives under damp conditions such as these. An infestation of red spider mites is a significant problem for household plants. If it gets truly bad, the leaves will fade, fall off and the plant will die. Red spider mites will breed very rapidly and move from plant to plant around your home.
Spider mites are like ticks and may be green-to-yellow or red, They are so small as to be very difficult to see with the naked eye, so the easiest way to see them is with a magnifying lens or you can hold a dark card under a leaf and then tap the leaf a few times.
Check the card for signs of movement. When you know that they are there you can kill them with the right spray from your plant shop. Check your watering habits for that pant. For example, it might be better to give less water more often.
Shell insects are also very difficult to see without a magnifying lens. If you do magnify them, they look like a dot of wax stuck to the stem or leaves. They suck the plant’s sap and so will stunt or even kill a plant over time. The easiest way of removing them is by the use of insecticide.
Mealy bugs look as if they have crawled out of a bag of flour. They are whitish-grey and are easily visible, usually on the underside of the leaves. You can brush them off or apply a suitable insecticide. It may take a few weeks to kill the bugs and their eggs.
Ants and green fly can also attack larger indoor plants, but they are easier to spot and treat. Wash the aphids with washing-up water and kill the ants with poison.
Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is at present concerned with Insect Removal. If you want to know more, please go over to our website now at Pest Management at Home.
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