It’s easy to tell when there’s something wrong with your plants, but harder to diagnose the cause. To help, we created this checklist of common signs of pest infestations and the best way to treat them.
Sign: Curling Leaves
Cause: Sucking insects such as aphids are extracting your plant’s sap. Your plant is then curling its leaves in an effort to retain moisture.
Treatment: Apply neem oil or other insecticide spray.
Sign: Chewed leaves
Cause: Chewing insects are munching on your plant. Look for the insect causing the problem. If you spot small white bugs, you have a leaf notcher weevil infestation. Otherwise, it’s probably caterpillars.
Treatment: Apply insecticide spray with bifenthrin for leaf notcher weevils. For caterpillars, use thuracide.
Sign: Brown or White Bumps on leaves and stems.
Cause: Scale insects have taken over. Scales are hard shelled insects that attach themselves to plants to suck on their sap and rarely move.
Treatment: Spray with neem oil.
Sign: Ants running up and down stems.
Cause: Ants are feeding on the secretions of pests. That is, the ants themselves are not the pests. Rather, they are feeding on the poop produced by pests, such as mealybug or whitefly.
Treatment: Apply neem oil or other insecticide spray.
Sign: Black Residue on leaves
Cause: Sooty mold, which forms on the poop of pests, such as aphids or scales.
Treatment: Apply neem oil or other insecticide spray.
Sign: Small brown spots on leaves
Cause: If these brown spots are visible on both sides of the leaf, it is a fungus. This is caused by stress, likely due to improper conditions.
Treatment: Treat with a fungicide spray and fix the root cause of the issue. Possible stressors include overcrowding, overwatering, lack of sunlight, poor drainage, and lack of nutrients.
We hope these common signs of pests infestations help you keep your garden vibrant and healthy. If you have more questions about pest infestations feel free to reach out to us.