7 Easy Ways to Get Rid of Indoor Plant Bugs

Even the mention of the term insect might cause a commotion in our indoor garden’s tranquility. Them’s easy to endure them while they’re outdoors (after all, bugs are a natural part of the environment), but when they penetrate the coziness of our own living room, just the notion of it may keep us awake at night! The good news is that controlling pests on indoor plants can frequently be accomplished with nothing more than some water, a cotton swab, and a soap solution. Here’s a guide on getting rid of any bugs you may come across:

Most of the time, effective bug treatment is as easy as rinsing the insects away with water or gently dislodging them with a cotton ball.

Aphids

Small pear-shaped insects, such as these, may be found outdoors on the vegetable plot, and you’ve undoubtedly seen them before. They may even make their way onto indoor plants, where they like to congregate around newly emerged leaves and flower buds. They feed on the sap of the plant and excrete a sticky substance known as honeydew as a byproduct.

How to get rid of these bugs: Remove any areas of the plant that are strongly contaminated with them. Use a moist cloth to remove insects from other areas of the house, or spray them with water in the bathtub. Other options include rubbing alcohol or vegetable oil, or spraying them with insecticidal soap to evict the cockroaches from their hiding places. Continue to remove them on a weekly basis until they are completely gone.

Fungus Gnats are a kind of gnat that lives in fungus.

They are little, dark-bodied insects that seem similar to fruit flies in appearance. They deposit their eggs in the soil’s uppermost layers and feed on decaying plant debris, according to the USDA. During their larval stage, they will also feed on the roots of your plant. As an adult fly, they are harmless to you and the plant, but they may become a nuisance if they buzz about your room for an extended period of time.

What you can do to get rid of these pests is to dry up their habitat by allowing the top two inches of soil to get fully desiccated between watering. Pour water into the saucer and remove it after about an hour. If you see a recurrence of the pest, gently spray the soil with insecticidal soap.

Mealybugs

They are little, slow-moving beetles approximately the size of a dill seed that have a flour-like coating around their bodies. These insects lay eggs that appear like tufts of cotton on the undersides of leaves or stems. They behave similarly to aphids in that they sucking the sap from your hottest houseplants and secreting honeydew that draws a sooty black fungus on the plant.

How to get rid of these pesky insects: Remove the bugs and eggs off your plant using a cotton swab dipped in vegetable oil or rubbing alcohol before drying.

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Scale

These bugs, which are also sap-suckers, appear as tan or brown oval lumps on the leaves or stems of plants. They may sometimes be mistaken for being a part of the plant itself. If it is, in fact, a scale insect, you should be able to scrape it off with a razor blade.

Getting rid of these pesky bugs is as simple as using a cotton swab, which comes in handy once again. Remove the pests from the plant by dipping it in vegetable oil or rubbing alcohol. Because the eggs are undetectable to the human eye, keep a careful check on the plant for the next several weeks and remove any additional scale bugs that you may come across. In the case of severe infestations, neem oil or insecticidal soap may be required.

Spider mites are a kind of mite that lives in spider webs.

These small red spiders are practically undetectable to the human eye, yet they create distinctive webs between the leaves and stems of the plants in which they live. They also feed on the sap of plants. Infected leaves may develop little yellow spots or become dry and limp, despite the fact that they are still green.

How to get rid of these pests: It’s essential to isolate the diseased plant in order to prevent the mites from spreading. To get rid of the webbing and mites, you may soak the plant in the bathtub and spray it with water. Remove any residual bugs by wiping them away with a towel. Repeat the procedure every few days until the infestation has been eradicated completely. If they continue to bother you, you may want to consider using an insecticidal soap.

Springtails

The appearance of these small leaping insects is often an indication that the soil has been overwatered. They live in the soil, where they feed on decaying plant materials, and they do not do any damage to the plant or to humans. When there are a significant number of them, they may become a nuisance.

When watering, allow the top two inches of soil dry out completely between waterings, then use a saucer to water the plant for about one hour after adding the water. Remove any dead plant debris that has accumulated on the soil surface.

Whiteflies

They have the appearance of small white moths rather than flies. They often congregate on the undersides of leaves and fly upward when the plant is touched or watered. When they are in their nymph stage, they feed on the sap of the plant, and when they reach adulthood, they lay additional eggs on the undersides of leaves. The leaves of infected plants may turn yellow or become stunted.

Remove the sick plant from the rest of the houseplants in order to eliminate the pests. Remove the infected leaves from the plant and rinse them off with water before spraying with insecticidal soap to kill the insects. Repeat the treatment once a week until they are no longer visible.

In order to prevent bugs from spreading in the first place, make it a habit when you water your indoor plants to check for pests. The plant should be quarantined and kept away from other indoor plants, if at all possible, while the illness is being treated if you detect any. Most of the time, effective bug treatment is as easy as rinsing the insects away with water or gently dislodging them with a cotton ball. The trick is to be persistent and deplete their numbers before they become overwhelming. Using an insecticidal spray as a last resort is always a viable alternative if everything else fails.

More houseplant care advice may be found on our Advanced Houseplant Care blog, and you are welcome to stop by our garden stores in Carpentersville and Bloomingdale for assistance. Take a look at our Winter Garden Guide to discover all of the indoor gardening choices available to you this season!