House plant pests: how to find and remove them

Small pests hide under leaves and at stem joints. Find them early and they are easy to remove. Check your plants once a week.

This is general care advice. Check the label of your plant. Keep toxic plants away from pets and children.

What you need

Turn a leaf over. Look at the underside. Check the stems and the places where leaves join the stem.
Look for fine webs and tiny speckles. These are spider mites. Tap a leaf over white paper. Tiny moving dots are mites.
Look for white cotton-like lumps. These are mealybugs. They sit in leaf joints and on leaf undersides.
Look for small brown bumps on stems and leaves. These are scale insects. A fingernail can scrape them off.
Look for tiny flies over the soil. These are fungus gnats. Their larvae live in wet soil.
Look for silver patches and tiny dark specks on leaves. These can be thrips. The insects are very small.
Move the sick plant away from other plants. Keep it apart until you see no pests for four weeks.
Wipe the leaves and stems with a damp cloth. Rinse the plant in a shower. Wiping and rinsing remove many mites and bugs.
Dab mealybugs and scale with a cotton swab and rubbing alcohol. Test the alcohol on one leaf first.
Spray the plant with insecticidal soap. Cover the leaf undersides. Repeat each week for 4 to 6 weeks. Follow the label. One treatment is not enough.
Put yellow sticky traps near the pot for flying pests.
For fungus gnats, let the top soil dry before you water again. Larvae need wet soil.

Answer the questions. The guide shows what to do.

What do you see under the leaves, on the stems or on the soil?

Let the top soil dry between waterings. Use yellow sticky traps for the adults. The larvae need wet soil.

They are most likely mealybugs. Dab them with a cotton swab and rubbing alcohol. Repeat each week.

Look for fine webs and tiny speckles on the leaves. Tap a leaf over white paper and look for tiny moving dots.