It’s summer. Even when there isn’t a drought, there’s enough to do outside (weeding, deadheading, trying to figure out how to outsmart the pesky chipmunks so that I finally get a tomato from them [or not, after the poisoning incident]–you get the idea) that generally all I do with the few house plants that have stayed indoors is water.
So this year, even though more house plants than usual remained indoors (meaning that I have more watering than usual), I am still not thinking much about the indoor plants.
When a couple of my big philodendron started to get yellow leaves, I shrugged and figured that I was keeping the light in the room too dark.
When I adjusted that and then they started to sunburn, now I looked closer.
Ick! So this is not a light problem at all! This is why I always say in my house plant lectures “be ever vigitant, I beseech you!” (It’s a malapropism from Shakespeare).
Luckily, I caught this before they became worse although they are pretty bad as it is. These are aphid nymphs. In a few more days, they probably would have begun sprouting wings and moving among my other plants. Ugh.
I took the two affected plants outdoors, removed the most badly infested leaves and hosed the plants down. I also washed the trays the plants had under them.
I will continue to hose the plants down for the next couple of weeks. And once they come in, I will watch them closely for repeat infestations.
And I guess I have learned not to presume that insect infestations only strike in spring and fall (generally, in my house, anyway). I will need to follow my own advice.
Gardendaze 