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Naomi Stephens | Permaculture Designer

3 Common Indoor Garden Pests and Natural Home Remedies

Updated: Apr 8, 2022

I love growing indoors, but despite being in a skyrise building, pests can still find their way on plants. Some of these pests like mites can go unnoticed by the untrained eye because they are so small. Here are some of the most common indoor plant pests.


Mites


These are the most common indoor pests. When I first saw them, I thought it was a disease because they were just tiny black dots that didn't appear to move.





Through research, I found out they were in fact mites. They normally hang out on the underside of plants sucking the sap from your leaves.


Your leaves will look thinner around the affected area and will eventually have holes.


Get rid of them by mixing the following into a spray bottle:

2 tsp canola oil,

2 pinches of cayenne pepper

1 tsp Castille soap

1/4 cup of water

Make sure you get to the underside of the leaves as well.



Fungus Gnats


These ones are easier to see and are normally dealt with quite swiftly. They do however spend their early life larvae stage inside the soil. Once they mature they'll be flying around.





Get rid of them by mixing the following into a spray bottle:

2 tsp pinches of baking soda

1 tsp Castille soap

1/4 cup of water







Thrips


These are small white, brown, or black rice-shaped bugs with legs. They are bigger than mites and smaller than the fungus gnats. You'll find them on leaves sucking the sap out.


They leave a white silvery thin damage on the leaves. You'll normally find groups of them instead of the odd one or two.


They lay up to 50 eggs in the leaves that hatch in about a week, so get rid of them as soon as you see them.




Get rid of them by mixing the following into a spray bottle:

2 tsp pinches of baking soda

1 tsp Castille soap

1/4 cup of water


 

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