Beating back the bugs on your houseplants before winter

Where are these bugs in our house plants where do they come from this time of year you know what they’ve always been around and again it’s very much like humans so and you know in the fall winter we start closing windows so we reduce a circulation we start you know

We might move plants in from outside and then light levels go down and most house plants we have are tropical plants so they’re used to 12 hours of light every day all year their metabolisms fall they start taking up less water and and all those things let’s go through the bugs

Um well the first one is easiest to control and that’s fungus Nats and they’re actually not interested in your plant at all they’re interested in the soil around the plant okay they’re little black flies typically easy solution take off the top intras Sola soil and replace with clean soil Andor

Some rock on top now you mentioned spidermites spidermites are in the middle so spidermites are kind of the middle one to in in terms of ease to get rid of first thing you’re going to see there is webbing what they do is they will suck the chlorophyll out of the

Leaf So eventually the leaves turn yellow the plant starts to weaken so they don’t like thick skin plants like succulents okay and how how do you get rid of them if you notice you’ve got them um you know what um safer soap works it’s also called insecticidal soap

It’s very safe safe to use indoors it’s basically like painting them in latex paint it covers up their pores so they can’t breathe and they just suffocate to prevent them you missed your plants what’s the third one third one is the real nasty to get rid of and those are

Melee bugs M bugs they sound terrible they are they look really cool they they’re white they’re fil me so you find them by it looks like little white powder inside the in right down in the nook of the plant you look for that and you get Q-tips with rubbing alcohol and

You just rub everywhere you see okay most of us have a relatively small number of plants in the house so it is feasible to go kind of plant by plant with a Q-tip and do that manually Rob thanks for coming in always good to chat with you thanks Mark

As winter approaches, houseplants can become more susceptible to bug infestations. Gardening expert Rob Sproule shares his tips to keep your plants safe this winter.

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