Does your Indoor Plant Attract Bugs?

Compared to outdoor gardening, indoor plants are less attractive to problems, making them popular among urban and city dwellers. Growing plants in-house require minimal maintenance than tending a whole farm. However, significant concern has been raised by indoor plant lovers on whether these plants invite bugs? If this has been an issue to you, then you are at the right place. I will guide you on some of the conditions that can make your herb prone to bugs, common indoor plant bugs, and ways to prevent bugs from affecting your plant. 

Can Indoor Plants Attract Bugs?

Growing plants indoors can attract bugs if the growth condition is highly moist and lacks proper air circulation. Just like mosquitoes love stagnant water and dump areas, some bugs like humid conditions, which they use as breeding grounds to sire future generations and as a hideout. If you observe these pests in your house, there is a high possibility they might be residing in your plant. The common bugs include fungus gnats, spider mites, whitefly, aphids, and thrips.

Conditions that can Attract Bugs

Why do pests choose your indoor plant and not those growing outside? This is a question that if you don’t have scientific knowledge, you might struggle to answer. However, my role as a forester is to help you understand this phenomenon and protect your plant from disease and possible death. The common reason your plant might be attractive to bugs is that it is growing in a highly humid condition that lacks proper air circulation. 

Humid Condition

Due to their tiny body size and the need to safeguard themselves from high temperatures, bugs are driven towards a place with high humidity. The moist condition protects their body from drying out and dying. Moist conditions can be triggered by regions close to water bodies like the coastal areas or places that experience significant precipitation levels, such as Arizona and New Mexico. Therefore, these naturally occurring high humidity levels are responsible for the significant humidity in your house. Another cause of high humidity is overwatering, which occurs when you excessively or frequently water your plant. Excessive watering leads to soggy soil that eventually elevates the humid condition around the plant.

Still Air

Proper air circulation and enough sunlight is not only important for your plant growth and keeping the humidity level low, but it is also critical in preventing bugs from invading your herb. Moving air facilitates faster drying of the soil and limits fungal growth, making your plant unattractive for bugs. Factors that can prevent air circulation include growing plants closely, which reduces ventilation in the foliage, and placing them in rooms lacking proper air movement. Placing plants close to windows, vents, and doors helps in facilitating air circulation.

Common Indoor Herbs

The common pests you should check when tending to your indoor plants include whiteflies, aphids, thrips, spider mites, and fungus gnats.

Whiteflies

Whiteflies are grouped as insects, and they include more than one thousand species. These insects are white and fly, hence, the name whiteflies. Due to their tiny size, whiteflies are difficult to detect in plants unless one is keen enough. Whiteflies mostly occur beneath the plant leaves, where they assemble and mate. Both the nymphs and adult whiteflies are sap-suckers and produce honeydew. Some of the symptoms observed in an affected plant are stunted growth, yellow leaves that keep dropping.

Aphids

Aphids are small, sap-sucking pests that hang around your plant, causing significant damage to their growth. Aphids exude honeydew, a sticky fluid found on plant’s leaves and stems. Aphid-affected plants exhibit distorted leaves, including yellow leaves that drops in case of severe infestation. However, aphids can be challenging to control since they reproduce prolifically.

Spider Mites

This is the most difficult pest to control due to its tiny size that is usually less than 1 mm wide, and varies in color. They mostly attack the webbing areas between the plant leaves; thus, affecting its development. Therefore, it’s good to check on both the leave’s sides for their evidence. Spider mites damage plants by piercing their foliage to obtain fluid within, thereby interfering with your plant’s normal growth. Signs of a spider mite-infested plant include stippled discoloration and yellow foliage. 

Thrips

Thrips are slender bugs with fringed wings known to feed on indoor plants' sap—about 6,000 thrips species of different colors such as tannish, dark brown, and neon green exist. The dark brown and neon green thrips tend to blend well with your house plant, making it difficult for you to observe their presence. Thrips stay for a month in which they can reproduce to build almost fifteen generations. The injured plant often exhibit pale color that, over time, turns silvery before dying.

Fungus Gnats

Adult fungus gnats can be a nuisance, especially when they come into your living room or assemble around windows and doors. However, the immature larvae present the most threat to your plant since it lives in the soil around your plant, feeding on its roots. Again, the larvae grow on decaying plant materials or fungus found naturally in the soil. The immature gnats affect your plant by transmitting pathogens into the soil or by injuring plant roots.

Ways to Prevent Bugs from Invading your Plant

Several methods exist that you can use or apply to protect your plant from bugs. The strategies include;

• Ensure that you maintain appropriate space and good air circulation between your plants. Arrange them into groups leaving a few inches of space between the leaves or container.
• Carefully check new herbs before bringing them into your room since they might be already infested. Nurseries, where most of these plant seedlings are grouped, are usually humid, making them susceptible to bugs. Inspecting a new one will help you save the cost of buying a pesticide and possible plant death.
• Isolate the dead and affected parts or leaves from the mother plant immediately you notice them. This includes even materials on the potting soil surface. Soil debris can be a good breeding ground for pests; therefore, always ensure your plant’s underneath is clean.