I haven’t watered my houseplant in a while and when watering it today I noticed quite a few little black flying bugs around the base of it… They’re really small and gnat-like but it’s certainly not the first time I’ve noticed them: they always annoyingly fly around my desk light and TV at night but I guess now I know where they’re coming from… Any ideas on how to get rid of them?
I also noticed some spider-web looking things on the tips of their leaves; here’s some of the images:
Bonus!
While clearing off these pictures off my memory card I remembered I took a few pictures of a little spider I found crawling on my floor the other day. Any idea on either what kind it is or more importantly, if its brothers/sisters are going to murder me in my sleep?
With its legs I’d say it was < 1" long… Thanks for all the info!
I’m not one of the resident bug experts, but I’ll give the houseplant and gnat questions a shot. I can’t help you with the spider. You have spider webs, so there’s certainly a spider trying to catch a few of those little black flyers. The flying bugs may or may not be living in the dirt or on the plant. Chances are good that they are fruit flies. They prefer overripe fruit, so they’re attracted to the smell of yeast. If there’s no fruit, they will settle for other decaying stuff, such as the soil in your plant’s pot. They need water, too, so you might find them hanging around sinks and toilets.
If it were my plant, I’d start with malathion, a widely available insecticide. Mix some up in a trigger sprayer. The label will tell you the right ratio. Spray the whole plant, including the bottoms of the leaves and the soil. Any bug or larva that bites the plant will die. If that doesn’t kill them, you need better advice than I have given you.
I’ve had the same problem with the gnats in the plants. The research that I’ve done seems to indicate that they might be fungus gnats. In my case, although I have several plants, they seemed to be congregating most around my rubber plant. About a week ago I removed that plant to see if it’d eliminate the problem. Haven’t seen any flies since, but I haven’t been around my apartment very much this week.
The little flying bugs are likely fungus gnats. They are not harmful to plants but if they’re annoying you a household plant spray (i.e. with pyrethrins) may control them. I would not use malathion indoors as there are safer and less stinky alternatives.
Your “spider” webs (as shown in the first few images you posted links to) appear to be associated with spider mites. These are harmful pests that can severely damage or kill plants (damage is indicated by pale spotting or streaking of the leaves; debilitated plants eventually die). What I would do is take the plant (and any other plants nearby) over to the sink and wash off the foliage thoroughly (especially the undersides of leaves), then use several spaced applications of an insecticidal soap or other houseplant spray rated for mite control over a period of a month or so. Once spider mites are established to the point where webs are visible, it indicates a pretty bad infestation, so this may take some time to eradicate.
I looked at your spider picture and immediately said, “Wolf spider.” Speaking from experience, even the little ones can deliver a painful and slow-to-heal bite, especially to toddlers crawling on the floor. If it’s in the house, I’d step on it. It’s not going to climb up on your plant and eat fungus gnats for you, but it is going to find a snug hiding place in that stack of newspapers on the floor, and when you sit there going through them looking for something, it’s going to bite ya.
Fungus gnats are sometimes just one of those things you put up with if you’re not a pesticide person. Back in the day I had many-many African violets, and fungus gnats were endemic in all the pots for some reason. Since my only alternative was drenching all my plants in toxic pesticides, I chose to ignore them, which worked.
Spider mites, however, will kill a plant eventually by sucking all its juices out if the infestation is heavy enough. My brother the professional greenhouse manager, devoted to Integrated Pest Management and a pesticide-free greenhouse, sez you can knock them off with frequent washing of the plant (like every other day, or even every day if you feel like it), until you disrupt them enough that they give up and go away. He sez the insecticidal soap works, too, but he points out that it’s not completely toxic to the bugs like a “real” pesticide is, so don’t simply squirt some of it around and expect instant miracles. You gotta keep at it.
Wow, if it’s going to be all that trouble I might just dump this plant in the garbage and buy a fake one… I was going to anyway but I chose to bought a real one after seeing the price difference.
On the spider issue, I’ve seen a few others like this… Does anyone know if those ultrasonic pest repellents (like Amazon.com or Amazon.com ) work? Thanks everyone!
Regardless of the types of bugs that are plaguing your houseplant(s), a safe and effective solution can be made in your kitchen.
Ingrediants:
about 2 cups of water
a couple of cigarette butts (or 1/2 inch of a cigarette)
drop of dish soap.
1)Put the cigarette butts in the water and microwave (you are essentially making Tobacco Tea). Leave the mix to soak for an hour or so.
2) add a drop of dish soap (brand unimportant)
strain through a coffee filter and pour into a “Misting Bottle”
Spray your plants and soil with this every week or so… the bugs should be gone in a few days… a second application gets any eggs that missed the first dose, and hatch.
This is a great working, safe and effective mixture that goes back to when granny was a girl…
IMO Jackmannii nailed it, both with the spider mites and the fungus gnats. Fungus gnats are quite common houseplant pest these days, as the larvae like the peat-based potting mixes that are most often used now. Thrips are possible, but IMO far less likely. (After growing houseplants for the last 30 years, I’ve come across every type of pest imaginable, except for thrips.) I second his recommended spider mite treatment.
For the fungus gnats, you can try yellow sticky traps (a yellow-colored cardboard or plastic card coated with a sticky substance.) These are sometimes marketed as “White Fly Traps.” The gnats are attracted to the yellow color, it seems.
