Beginner Gardening: Help! My houseplant has been invaded!, 1 by courtneyk

courtneyk wrote:
I'm not much of a gardener, but I do enjoy my houseplants, and so far have had no problems caring for them - until now!

I have a house plant that is a three foot tree like plant with thin trunks about a nickel in diameter with round green leaves with the occasional white accent about the edges (sorry I don't know the name of it!)

I noticed bugs on the underside of the leaves and mentioned them to my mother who said to mix water and a bit of dish soap and wash the leaves with it every few days. I did that for about two weeks, without any results. The wiped off bugs would be replaced by more then next day.

I then asked advice of my boyfriend's mother (who had given me the plant), she said they were aphids and told me to buy insecticide, damp paper towel with the insecticide, then wipe them off of the leaves and stems etc. Which I did so, and they came back - it seemed more of them returned than originally populated my poor plant! Her advice was to repeat the action again, then repeat again after two days. After doing that, they returned once more! She then advised to put the plant outside for a few hours each day to kill the bugs in the cold weather. I did that for the first day and the plant seemed fine, however the next morning every single stem and leave has wilted!

After much research online, I'm starting to wonder if the bugs aren't aphids but spider mites - but they don't have fine webs anywhere on the plant. I tried to take a close up picture of them, attached below. I have been watering my plant as if it were well, and haven't repeated putting it outside anymore. I'm afraid the bugs are really resistant to the pesticide, and the soapy water did nothing to deter their population growth. I am wondering if I should clip off all of the leaves (the bugs seem to be only on the leaves) and then wash the trunk daily etc. until the leaves grow back? There are a few new sprouts coming out of the tree that weren't there a few weeks ago which suggests to me that the plant is okay, but I can't see how with a bug infestation.

Advice??