It's no secret that I love indoor plants.
In fact, there's over 350 pieces of evidence in my place
that confirm it.
But there is an aspect of indoor gardening that's a little bit icky,
and it lurks in even the most beautiful plant collections.
I'm talking, of course, about those tiny parasitic insects
that try and suck the sap and the very life
out of our indoor plants.
Firstly, it's important to know that it's not necessarily your fault.
Pests and diseases are a part of nature.
So if you've got some indoor plants,
it's highly likely you're going to get some at some point.
Today, we're going to cover
some of the most common ones you'll encounter,
and also how to get rid of them.
We'll start with mealybug,
and I've deliberately left some on this Dioscorea elephantipes
so you could see what they look like.
They're tiny, white, parasitic insects,
only about 1mm to 2mm each,
but they gather together in big clumps.
They look like little white balls of fluff
and they congregate on the underside of the leaves and in the leaf axles,
which is where the leaves join the stem.
They suck the sap out of your plants
and they'll eventually stunt their growth or even kill them.
If you've only got a few,
the best way to treat them is with methylated spirits
on a cotton bud,
and you just dab it on top.
It dehydrates them and kills them really, really quickly.
If you've got a serious infestation, though,
you'll need to mix up a spray bottle of neem oil,
make sure you spray all over the plant,
including the underside of the leaves,
and you'll need to repeat that in seven days
to make sure you get them all.
Scale are also little insects, but they can be harder to spot.
They've got a smooth oval-shaped shell that can be brown or black.
They also suck the sap from your plants
and they can multiply really quickly.
I use white oil to suffocate and kill scale.
You can buy that from your local nursery
or you can even mix your own.
We put some recipes for you on the Gardening Australia website.
If you're a person who hates spiders, present company included,
you can take some comfort in the fact that these ones
are so tiny they're almost invisible.
Or maybe that's worse.
These webs are the telltale sign of spider mite infestation.
They're so small that that might be all you can see of them.
Another sign is discolouration on the tender edges of the leaf.
If they really get a hold,
the entire leaf might go yellow and drop off.
Mites hate moisture,
so make them really uncomfortable by wetting the plant right down,
including the soil and the leaves.
This will remove the mites, and importantly their eggs,
and break their breeding cycle.
But make sure you don't leave the soil damp for too long.
Otherwise it'll be vulnerable to other problems,
like the very annoying fungus gnat.
They're a tiny little black flying insect
that hovers around the top of your potting mix.
Mostly these are caused by too much moisture in the soil,
so if you get them, just dry the soil out a little bit.
But my cure - one part peroxide to four parts water.
You water the plant really well with that
until it runs out the bottom of the drainage holes.
That kills the gnats and the eggs.
Now, fungus gnats are not serious, but fungus, on the other hand,
can cause some real problems.
But luckily, it's easy to treat.
Rust is something I've had to deal with in my collection before,
and one of the symptoms is this rusty brown spot on the back of the leaf.
It loves to infect plants like monsteras and philodendron
with big, leathery leaves.
There's also other types of fungal infections
like this here on this hoya.
You can see this sunken brown patch.
That's fungal,
and it can also be like a wet spot that spreads out over the leaf.
All of these need to be treated with an organic fungicide,
which you can get from your nursery.
It's something you spray on front of the leaves,
and make sure you do the back as well.
The best way to minimise these issues
is to stop them coming in your front door in the first place.
That means, when you're choosing plants,
make sure you look really closely at the leaves on the undersides as well,
and in the crown of the plant, where these critters hide.
And that's not going to be fail-safe.
Eggs can still be hiding under the surface of the potting mix.
So continue to keep an eye on your plants
and be ready to defend them from tiny life suckers when you need to.
It's all part of the plant parenting job description.
So we've covered some of the less glamorous sides of indoor gardening.
But next time we're going to have more fun
because I'm going to show you how to display
and style your indoor garden for maximum impact.