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It can be scary to discover that one of your favorite plants is suffering from a pest infestation. Luckily, in most cases, your plants can be saved with relatively little effort! Alwaysisolatea plant as soon as you notice pests, check your other plants, and clean the surrounding area with disinfectant. Here are a few of the most common types of indoor plant pests along with information on how to recognize and get rid of them.
These indoor plant pests are typically green, white, or black, and about 3 mm long. They suck sap out of plants near areas where new growth is appearing. Your plant’s leaves can turn yellow and fall off or new growth may appear deformed and stunted
Aphids often come in on plants that were grown or kept outdoors, so be sure to check plants before you bring them inside forwinter. They have a symbiotic relationship with ants, so they can also come in along with an ant infestation. Ants“farm” aphids in order to eat a sugary substance they produce while feeding on plants. Once you notice aphids, you’ll want to act quickly to remove them, as they can multiply in less than a week and may travel to other plants.
These white fuzzy bugs can grow to be up to ¼ inch long, and suck sap from new growth causing leaves to die and fall off. They create a sweet secretion known as “honeydew” which can leave plants vulnerable to infection by fungus or mold.
Citrus trees, tropical houseplants, and overwatered houseplants are particularly susceptible to mealy bugs. These indoor plant pests commonly come into the house on new plants that were grown in greenhouses, where the environment is warm and humid. Mealy bugs can asexually reproduce, so even one bug left on a plant can cause an entire infestation.
While scale may look more like a disease, it is actually a type of insect that does not move once it reaches maturity and latches onto a plant to drink sap. It typically appears as brown raised patches resembling scales, but can also be almost any other color. Symptoms include sticky residue on the leaves and stems of a plant, or yellow and deformed leaves.
Scale insects commonly come inside on cut flowers, produce from farmers’ markets or grocery stores. An infestation can also be spread by a new plant from a garden store or nursery, oroutdoors. Scale can even survive in used potting soil until it comes into contact with a new plant.
These tiny arachnids can be white, brown, or red, but are almost invisible. You probably won’t know they’ve attacked your plants until you see fine dense webbing around the edges of the leaves and stems. Symptoms of spider mite damage include brown and yellow speckled leaf discoloration, or extreme cases, yellow or dying leaves.
Spider mites thrive in dry conditions, so under watered plants are more susceptible. They can become even more of a problem in the winter when humidity levels drop indoors.
Whiteflies are usually less than ⅛ inch long, and resemble small white moths. They are easy to detect, because when disturbed, a cloud of them will fly away from an infested plant. Whiteflies usually cause minimal damage, but could cause unsightly discoloration or stunt your plant’s growth. They live on the undersides of leaves, so be sure to check there thoroughly for eggs.
These indoor plant pests are more common in the late summer when humidity rises, but can come from greenhouses any time of year.
