Gardening Help for Houseplants

Getting Rid of Pests on Your Houseplants

No matter how green your thumb, sooner or later you have to deal with pests on your houseplants. Sometimes a new plant carries hidden pests when you bring it home, and shares with all the other plants near it. Sometimes who knows why, it just happens.

Here’s a few gardening ideas for getting rid of the pesky pests…

• Pick off pests by hand, or gently wash the leaves to remove them. This physical control is a good place to start, and allows you to see up close exactly how bad the problem is.
• Insecticidal soap is another gardening help that works well for pests on houseplants. These soaps kill the pests by smothering them, so it is essential the insects are covered with the soap. It may take frequent applications before all the pests are eradicated. Follow the directions on the label of whatever product you buy.
• Apply a 2 percent solution of horticultural oil is a good gardening help for pests like spider mites, or red-spiders, appear as tiny dots moving over the plant surface..
• Use the botanical insecticides pyrethrins or neem. These products are an especially good gardening help for pests like aphids.
• Q-tips and alcohol are another gardening help to control pests. First dip the q-tip in alcohol, then dab pests like mealy bugs or aphids with the alcohol to kill them.

There are many gardening helps to get rid of pests on indoor plants. Try the simplest and least toxic to make both you and your plant happier.

No related posts.