One drop is all you need...
Pests can easily be brought into the home when keeping house plants - in fact, it's easier than you think and while commercial growers do an amazing job at keeping these bugs at bay, it pays to have a little bit of knowledge on the subject.
Keeping a close eye on your plants when they arrive with you is the first step as these pests don't magically appear from nowhere. You bring them into your home...😖
Of course, they don't always come in via a houseplant. They may be hitchhikers and if you've been for a walk on a nice sunny day, a greenfly might happen to land on your top, you bring it home and VOILA.
Lots of tasty houseplants to eat.
That said, typically most plant pests are introduced in the home when fresh plants are introduced. Assuming you've purchased a plant, a thorough inspection is always needed.
Check all around the plant and check the leaves - especially the underside. This is where they love to hide and they're usually in groups (but one is all it takes and they're asexual so can reproduce on their own).
So what's the solution?
The good news it's suprinsigly simple.
Get a spray bottle and put a single drop of washing up liquid in it. Typically one drop per 700ml is about right. You can also use hand soap if you prefer.
Give the bottle a shake then give the plant a good spray all over (so you may prefer to do this outside). The magic of this solution is that any insects on the plant end up absorbing this spray into their body and drowning them.
The spray won't harm you or your plants and it's a really cheap and easy way to keep on top of pests before they cause you grief. Let's not forget moving away from pesticides is the best solution so if there's a cheap and easy fix that doesn't harm the environement, you or your plant it's a win win scenario.
It's always best to either quartantine plants before you mix them amongst your other plants OR simply place this freshly sprayed plant away from others. Greenfly and blackfly generally like to walk from plant to plant so you need to make it as difficult as possible.
Hope this helps 😎 🌱
