This is the same in Madagascar hissing cockroaches, which are not a plant pest, but an insect that I raise, and I'll be the first to say that it can be shocking that one day you'll have 2 cockroaches and the next day 20X that amount. Quite unique in the insect world, the female scales are ovoviviparous, which means they give to birth to living young by hatching the eggs while they are still in their mother. Soft scales, which are just one of the groups of scale insects, can reproduce both sexually or parthenogenetically, which means that they can produce young without fertilization. They are often seen in clumps along a stem, sucking away at the plant's juices with their spiky mouthpart. They're called "scales" largely due to their scale-like appearance on a plant, due to waxy or armored coverings. They can range in color, but are most often brownish in appearance (hence the name), but I've also seen them in shades of yellow, amber, and even olivaceous. Firstly, they're ovate, only about 3-4 mm long and about half as wide. They are rather inconspicuous-and don't look like a typical insect-unless you know what to look out for. There are different varieties of scale but by far the most common is the brown soft scale ( Coccus hesperidum L.). Upon closer inspection, I noticed brown nubs stuck to the woody stem and underside of leaves, closest to the central vein. I didn't see the insect at first, but I did notice that some of the bottom leaves of the plant were shiny and sticky. The first time I noticed a scale insect was on a jasmine plant that I had purchased at the farmers market. ![]() The list of seven insects and mites are by no means an exhaustive list of houseplant pests, but they are the most typical ones that you'll likely see in the home.Ĭommon brown scale (Coccidae and Diaspididae families) However, I wanted to use this time to go over some of the common pests that you may eventually get on your houseplants, and simple ways to prevent infestation from the onset. As a prolific gardener in an indoor, closed environment, I didn't have any desire to toss out plants or spray toxic insecticides indoors, so I opted for integrated pest management and natural techniques, which I'll go over a little bit here and more in depth in a subsequent post. I noticed scale, including mealybugs whiteflies thrips and even the fungus gnat, (the latter which is more annoying than pest-like). I had converted my closet into a vegetable garden as an experiment and within weeks, the pest numbers exploded. Not because I'm out of tune with plant and bug (most friends know that I've been raising insects since I was 9 years old and ended up studying entomology in college), but largely because my plants didn't have any noticeable pests.Īll of that changed in 2016 when I began growing food in my home. Did they assume that benign insects were just generally attracted to flower and foliage-or were they insinuating that I had an outbreak of insect pests? If the latter, I must admit that for the better part of six years I was blissfully unaware of any pesky insects in my home. "What on earth do they mean?" I couldn't quite pinpoint the root of their question. As people became more aware of the plants that I was growing in my home, I noticed I would often get the question, " How do you deal with all the insects?"
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