House Plant tip

For many of us we move our house plants outside for the spring, summer and fall and now the time has come to bring them back indoors. Remember you only want your plants coming back in, not frogs, spiders or various other bugs that have taken up residence on your plants while outside.

I have found a homemade pesticide online that I spray on the leaves and stems of the plants prior to bringing into living areas of our home. I spray my plants with the below mixture, then set in a garage type area before putting back into the plants winter places in our house.

Soap Mixture

• A few teaspoons of liquid dishwashing soap
• 1 gallon of water

Spray on the surface and underside of infested foliage. The soap acts to paralyze insects, which prevents them from feeding. The pests eventually die of starvation. For heavy infestations spray every 2 to 3 days for 2 weeks.

This is a very generic mixture that can fight off most any insects. Make sure to use a light liquid soap here as well to ensure not to kill your plants.

Just because you cannot see the little rascals does not mean they are not there. And do not laugh about my frog comment, last year I found a lovely green frog living underneath one of my orchids.

Happy gardening,

Rena