Plants are those silent spectators which are the sole witnesses to some of the biggest sins and greatest joys of our lives. One has to thank god for not giving the plants the gift of words, just imagine your potted palm complaining about the mites living on its lowest branch.
How to get rid of pests is a common question that bothers all of us, well its not as difficult as it sound. The most important point is pest identification and then you can control them.
Some common houseplant pests:
- Whiteflies: as the name suggests they are white and if you shake the leaves they will fly allowing you to see their waxy bodies.
- Scale; going by the name its easy to know that when your plant starts looking scaly it has the scale bug, the leaves are usually infested with this pest.
- Mealy bug: this looks like a fungus at the bottom of a leaf where it joins the branch.
- Spider mites: you can call them miniature spiders as they closely resemble spiders but are very tiny.
- Aphids: these are plump looking and if you observe them for some time you will notice slight movement, they suck juice out of the plant.
To get rid of these plant pests you will have to use either green pest control or chemical pest control. Green pest control is the biological way to get rid of all your plant pests, using other insects to kill the harmful pest or organic pesticides.
Some common organic ways to combat plant pests:
Sticky traps will help get rid of the pest as it will stick to the trap:
- Dish soap; this is the commonest pesticide, spray a dilute mixture on your plants and you will get rid of the pests.
- Alcohol; rub some on the plants and they will be free of the pests, be sure not to spray the pests with alcohol as they are pious creatures who don’t touch alcohol. Even the bugs don’t touch the high spirits you see, they just suck the juices out of living creatures.
- Silicon or horticulture oils.
- Chilli pepper; well pepper sprays will help rid of the pests in the true sense.
For all your garden pest control from rose pest control to the lawn pest control you can go green and organic, it may be a little tiresome but its very effective.