by Jeanne

Have you checked your house plants lately? That’s not an idle question. Often we treat house plants like fixed objects; we bring them into the house, set them on their windowsill, water them once a week and forget them. But the poor house plant.  What if you bring a new plant into the house and it brings along an unwanted guest? Yes, I’m talking about…insects.

Many years ago, I eagerly brought home a palm from the gardening department of a local discount store, never once dreaming that the lush green foliage housed one of the worst insect pests to deal with: spider mites. Within days, not only was the palm covered with thin white webs, but I could actually see mites moving along them.  When you have so many spider mites you can actually see them, you’ve got thousands infesting the plant.

Insecticidal soaps, washes and everything else didn’t rid the plant of mites.  I had to throw it out.  Worse, though, was that the mites found a way to move from the palm to my favorite plant, a flowering jasmine that never failed to cheer me up each winter with sweetly-scented blooms.  I lost not only the palm but the huge jasmine I treasured.

Whenever you bring a new house plant in from a store, or when you bring your house plants in for the winter after a summer vacation outdoors, visually inspect them for signs of insects.  White cotton-like clumps or webs indicate different types of insects, as do those awful thin cobwebs.  If you see little gnats or flies around them, bring them back outside and head to the garden center. Ask a professional for help diagnosing your plant and choosing the right treatment option.  Treatment for insects on house plants varies according to the plant and the insect.

One thing you can do to help your garden center professional identify the insect pest on your plant is to use a sticky card. You can buy packs of stick cards at the nursery or make it yourself.  Sticky cards are yellow or yellow and blue cards with a bit of glue on them. You place them on a stick or hang them off the side of the pot.  Flying insects get stuck to the card, and then of course they hold still long enough to look at them under a hand lens for proper identification.

You can make your own sticky card using a yellow index card and a dab of petroleum jelly. Use a clothespin and stick the card to the pot.  Wipe petroleum jelly on most of the card. It will trap flying insects like a commercial card.

Take a few minutes during the winter months to inspect your house plants for unwanted guests or problems. Now’s the time to baby your indoor plants. Soon the outdoor garden beckons with myriad chores. Give your house plants time now, before spring arrives and you’re too busy to do more than water them.