How to Remove Bugs from Plants?

Bugs are the little insects feeding on the leaves and stems of your plants and they do serious damage to your garden. You did not care for your plants just to allow pesky insects and bugs to eat them and destroy them. When sending flowering plants that you can transfer to your gardens at home, you can always ask your local Florist for helpful tips on how to remove bugs. Here is a list of the things you can do to remove those insects and stop them from pestering your plants:

Identify the Tiny Houseplant Pests.

If you think or observe that your plants are infested by pesky little insects or houseplant pets, the first thing to do is to identify what types of insects are in the plants. You may find spider webs on the leaves that already caught bugs and flying and crawling insects. You may also find tiny white insects flying around the plants. There are also different red and green bugs sucking the flowers’ juices. There are aphids, tiny bugs, and mealybugs that need proper treatment.

Simple but Effective Ways to Remove Pests

• Nematodes – To remove nematodes, the expert florist recommends the use of licensed pesticides. On the other hand, if you don’t want to use chemicals, you can just remove the leaves from the entire plant and let it grow again in a new pot. Once you detect nematodes in your plants, it is best to separate the plant from other houseplants until you are sure that the pests are totally gone. These microscopic worms are capable of damaging your houseplant if not treated immediately.
• Mealy Bugs and Plant Lice – Mealybugs and plant lice are tiny pests that can do big damage to the plant. They usually carry viruses that affect the leaves and the roots of the plant. They suck the juices and nutrients of the plants causing them to kill the plant when left untreated. According to the florist in Singapore, it is always important to separate affected plants from the rest of the healthy plants to prevent the virus and the pests from pestering other plants. In addition, using neem, a biodegradable and non-toxic type of insecticide, is helpful and effective. Moreover, mealybugs and plant lice can be easily preventable. At first sign of pests, do the necessary treatment.
• Slugs and Snails – The annoying snails and slugs are life-threatening to houseplants. If you want to say goodbye to these pests that make your plants their perfect midnight meal, you need to pick them one by one and remove them from the plants, leaves, and even under the soil. Most florists suggest the use of beer as a trap. The smell of the beer attracts these creeping and crawling snails and slugs, allowing you to easily catch them.
• Beetles – The small holes in the leaves of your houseplants are caused by those leaf-chewing beetles. They love the taste of leaves. You can easily remove them by picking the beetles one by one manually. If there are too many beetles, you can use a spray made from a mixture of Malathion pesticide solution. It is mainly composed of 1 teaspoon of Malathion for each gallon of water. In using this solution, the color of the leaves will change but will soon go back to its color when flowers start to bloom.
• Caterpillars – Hungry caterpillars will surely feast on your houseplants. Although they will soon become cute and amazing butterflies, they are bound to ruin your foliage. The best way to remove them without affecting their natural life is to pluck them out from the plant and transfer them to other green plants away from your home. You may also use Acephate spray or with Neem on the leaves so that they will become less scrumptious to caterpillars and other pests.
• Ants – Ants may not be dangerous to plants because they do not chew on leaves. They only want to suck the honeydew left on the blooms. On the other hand, ants may crawl on the blooms, and this is the last thing you want to have in your houseplant. To remove ants from your plants, you can simply rinse off the plant with water. Water will clean the sticky residue from the blooms.

Simple DIY Home Remedies for Natural Insecticides:

• A homemade solution of lemon juice and water. This solution will help plants repel those bugs and pests.
• Soap solution made from vegetable oil soap and water. Spraying this solution to the plants will prevent insects and pests from pestering the plants.
• Dish soap solution is also effective pest control. Combining five tablespoons of dish soap with four cups of water creates a natural and chemical-free solution for pest control.
• Neem oil spray provides a natural insecticide. This is an effective solution to repel aphids, mites, bugs, and other kinds of bugs and pests on houseplants.
• Beers, grape juices, orange juices, and grapefruit juices can trap slugs and snails.
• Pyrethrum spray is made from dried flowers of Chrysanthemums. This spray is a natural insecticide to stop flying and crawling insects from pestering the plants.

The last thing you want for your houseplants is to find bugs and insects eating the leaves and flowers. Fortunately, there are simple but effective ways to get rid of them without damaging the plants and the environment. Some products and solutions are even available at home.