Lets talk about house plant insects that can easily do in your most precious plant member of your family.

Now that plants that need to be indoors during the winter are in fact indoors, you might start seeing insect problems that need to be addressed. Houseplants are prone to a varied assortment of insect pest problems. Some of the more common insects on house plants are scale insects and spider mites. However, one of the easiest to recognize is the mealybug. You've probably seen mealybugs at one time or another on the stem or leaves of a houseplant. They look like small white puffs of cotton or fluffy deposits of white powder. They are common on African violets, ficus, jade, gardenia, poinsettia, and many more indoor plants. Mealybugs are actually related to aphids and scale insects. Like these, the mealybugs feed on the plants sap by extracting it through a long slender beak pierced into the plant's tissue. Lightly infested plants may only be stunted, yellowed or malformed. Mealybugs can be difficult to control. However, the standard, well known remedies for house plant pests are often times successful if applied with diligence and persistence. Picking off the individual mealybug and egg sack or dabbing each one with an alcohol soaked cotton swab may be satisfactory for lightly infested plants.

However, if the mealybug population on your plant is high, commercial insecticide sprays may be necessary. These sprays can be non-chemical or chemical and purchased at many of your favorite lawn and garden centers in the region.