Don’t Let These 5 Pests Eat Your Pothos
Pothos trails and cascades with heart-shaped leaves in fresh green, lime, or gold and with variegation, flecks, or splashes. It’s one of the most popular houseplants. It acts as an anchor among indoor selections for hanging baskets or containers, sprawling beautifully with little maintenance.
Epipremnum aureum are easy-care tropicals that adapt to less-than-ideal conditions. They grow well in many interior spots, even with low or artificial light. Keep them out of direct sun and away from drafts, and the trailing stems will thrill and spill. In more light, they develop large, showy leaves as they mature. Bright, indirect light also promotes the best coloration and vigor.
Fortunately, pothos have few problems regarding pests and diseases. Common houseplant pests, though, don’t discriminate. Plants stressed by environmental factors are more likely to succumb to damage, with watering fluctuations and air circulation as primary stressors for houseplants. The best management is to provide pothos with their preferred growing conditions at the start.
Scouting and detecting pests early helps prevent insects from depleting nutrients, impacting growth, and transmitting diseases. Inspect new houseplant additions before you bring them inside to minimize introduction and spread.
Aphids
Aphids are prolific reproducers. There are hundreds of species of the sap-sucking insects that feed on plant tissues. Their vast palette includes ornamentals, edibles, and also houseplants. They proliferate quickly to feast on indoor specimens.
Aphids are pear-shaped and soft-bodied in light yellow, green, pink, brown, or black. They colonize in large numbers on the undersides of leaves. With piercing mouthparts to mine for sap, aphids prefer soft, new growth, including tender shoots and leaf undersides. In numbers, they cause stress. Pothos with a pest infestation may show curling leaves, yellowing of the entire surface or in dappled spots, and stunted growth.
The insects also leave behind sugary “honeydew” waste that leads to an unattractive black, sooty mold. To add to their assault is their ability to spread fungal spores and viruses as vectors. Symptoms of virus or fungal diseases like leaf spot, mottling, and distortion may also appear.
Treatment
Outdoors, we have the advantage of natural predators as the first line of defense. Beneficial insects like ladybugs, parasitic wasps, hoverflies, and lacewings prey on aphids and help control populations.
For small numbers on houseplants, wipe leaves (both sides) with a damp cloth or place them under a stream of water. The aim is to deter aphids by displacing them (and their piercing mouthparts) from leaves and stems. Do this as part of ongoing maintenance with recurring aphids.
Since aphids congregate in high numbers, pruning off impacted sections may eliminate small infestations. Spraying a horticultural soap or neem oil on both sides of the leaves controls infestations. Plant-based insecticidal oils include garlic extract, clove, rosemary, mint, and cinnamon oils and are effective organic controls. Additional applications may be necessary to eradicate the pests.
To prevent aphids, water consistently to achieve evenly moist soils. Aphids gravitate toward drought-stressed specimens over healthy, well-watered ones.
Mealybugs
Mealybugs are soft-bodied and look like tiny tufts of white cotton or dust on leaves and stems. In an infestation, you’ll see the insect accompanied by yellowing, wilting, stunted leaves, and decline. Like aphids, they also feed on sap and lay eggs in cellular tissues.
Mealybugs are actually aphid relatives. Similarly, they leave behind a signature sticky honeydew. This can lead to unhealthy black, sooty mold.
Early outbreaks are easy to control, but if not caught in time, mealybugs recur and are challenging to get rid of entirely.
Treatment
Give leaves and stems a hearty rinse, and follow up with a cotton swab treatment. Dip the swab in isopropyl alcohol and wipe the stems and leaves. This treatment is effective at instantly reducing early numbers. Other deterrents like repotting and horticultural oils are good options for more severe cases. In prolonged infestations, it’s best to discard the unhealthy pothos to prevent the spread among houseplants.
To prevent mealybug pests, aim for consistent moisture and bright, indirect light to meet the pothos’ best cultural requirements. Avoid overfertilizing, as many pests enjoy tender new growth and high nitrogen levels, and excess fertilizer promotes both.
Spider Mites
Spider mites are tiny sap-suckers that live on the undersides of leaves. You may not see the tiny insects without a magnifying glass, but their fine webbing on stems and leaves gives them away. Two-spotted spider mites are the most common pests of pothos.
Colonies live near leaf veins and mid-ribs underneath leaves. The females lay eggs, and the larvae hatch to quickly feed on sap and tissues. Adults feed and produce the tight webs.
With spider mites, foliage shows pale spots, light yellowing, and white stippling on surfaces. Leaves also become stiff and curl, leading to early drop.
Spider mites occur most in warm, dry, and dusty conditions. Houseplants that experience drought stress from underwatering are most susceptible. Winter, too, brings increased heating and fireplace usage, which lowers humidity and fosters dry situations.
Treatment
If you detect spider mites, use the stream of water method, as with aphids. Prune away affected stems if possible. A horticultural soap or oil helps mitigate large populations.
To prevent spider mites, maintain evenly moist soils. Moisture fluctuations give them the opportunity to increase, further weakening the host plant. If humidity is low, place the pot near a tray of pebbles filled with water to increase the immediate air moisture. Dust leaves as indeed to keep them free of particulates.
Scale
Scale join their fellow common pests in piercing leaves and stems to feed on sap. You may notice a sticky residue. They look like little legless blobs or splotches, usually appearing on the undersides of leaves and stems as black, gray, or silvery dots. Females develop a protective armor-like coating. While mobile in the nymph stage, they become stationary after molting. The good news is that when stationary, their spread lessens.
In scale outbreaks, leaves may turn yellow and drop, with stems dying back in heavy infestations. New growth may stunt or show deformities. Remove affected growth where feasible in severe cases.
Treatment
For small numbers, employ the cotton swab and alcohol rub. This manages early numbers. You may also try a soft toothbrush dipped in a solution of castile soap and water to detach the insects. Lastly, soaps and oils are effective in controlling nymph populations.
To prevent scale pests, keep leaves free of dust and wipe leaves ccasionally, or give pothos a bath during a regular watering session.
Thrips
Thrips are last on our list of pothos sap-sucking pests. Tiny with long, narrow bodies, their color ranges from translucent white to yellow, brown, and black. Adults have fringed wings.
Thrips feed on foliar tissues and may also carry viruses. Leaves look silvery and stippled or brown and papery.
With thousands of species, not all thrips are harmful. Some feed on aphids and mites as natural pest control. It’s easy to control damaging thrips early on and with regular scouting. If you aren’t sure if it’s thrips, gently shake stems over a piece of white paper and look for dark spots (dislodged pests).
Treatment
As with spider mites, predatory insects like parasitic wasps, other mites, and green lacewings naturally control thrips outdoors. Inside, neem and horticultural soaps treat outbreaks. Coat all surfaces of leaves and stems. Spinosad, derived from a bacteria, is an organic treatment that disrupts their feeding and kills the insect.
Rinse the dust off plants to deter tissue-feeding insects and clip and dispose of affected sections. Raise the humidity with the pebble tray method and keep soils evenly moist to avoid overly dry situations.
