Help! My houseplant has been invaded!

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??

Courtney,

Your picture is a bit blurry and it is hard to tell....

They could be Mealybugs, except they usually are not found "all over" a leaf, but more along the veins and in the axils near the stems. Also--the bugs on your plant seem to all have "legs"--and Mealybugs would not have legs like that. I am not sure now!

If they are mealybugs, mix water and alcohol 1/2 and 1/2 and spray down the infested areas. Concentrate on the nooks and cranies----like where the leaves join the stem. The "nurseries" are often in those places.
Mealybugs are like a soft scale. They are white and covered with a wax coating and regular sprays do no good--except for the newly hatched ones, that is why alcohol works. It dissolves their wax coating and they die.

Soap sprays will work, so your MIL was on the right track. Use "Lemon Joy" dish soap for best results. Not all of them work the same. Keep spraying every 10 days for about 3-4 rounds.

I cannot tell from your photo what kind of a plant that is. Could you post another picture? One not so "macro"?

Perhaps someone else will jump in and help you more....

Gita

My first thought was just EWWWWWWWWWW I would freak if I seen that on my plants! LOL Looks like some sort of spider to me, but a new pic would be helpful.

They aren't mealies. Either aphids or whiteflies maybe...do they fly around when you disturb them?
Gita is right, we need a clearer photo.

courtney--these bugs look like mites. you must smother them. get a dormant oil or mitacide. kelthane is good but you have to use it outside. i'm pretty sure you can use the oil outside and then bring the plant back in. check with a reputable garden center or your local ag agent. good luck. nancy_vss

Neem oil works well on mites.

I don't think it's spider mites...they are reddish brown and VERY tiny. It's hard to tell what they are though from the picture. Regardless of what they are, I'd take the plant outside and give it a good hosing off (if it's warm enough that you can use the hose...otherwise I'd take them in the bathroom and give them a shower.) Then let it dry and spray your insecticide of choice (I'd try one like neem or insecticidal soap, they generally work on a range of things). The hosing off part is important because it knocks the numbers down--especially if these are aphids, they reproduce like crazy and you're never going to get all of them with the pesticide, then the 10 or so that you missed become 100 within a day. If you hose the plants off first, then you'll probably only miss one or two instead of 10 or 20, and then the math is more in your favor. You'll still need to repeat the pesticide treatment a few times though or else they will still come back.

K here is a picture of my sad little tree. He desperately needs help! Thank you for such helpful response so far!

So what happened to him? I think the combination of the pesticide and then putting him outside in the cold for a few hours caused him to wilt so rapidly and everywhere, but I'm not much of a plant person so I'm not sure. The stems and such are still green and squishy, not dry, and do not easily come off of the trunk when pulled gently - so are they still alive?

Update on Bugs:
Taking pictures tonight, I noticed a lot of the bugs looked fried and dead. Also, the bugs that are still alive (well, I'm guessing they are alive based on the pictures anyway) don't move when disturbed at all. I haven't really seen any of them move, actually, but my eyes aren't that great close up. I can say for sure that they do not fly about. I'll post another post with a new less blurry picture of the bugs.

Thank you so much for such a quick response!

Clearer picture of the bugs:

I have no clue, just that they give me chills!

Don't know about the bugs--but hour plant sure looks like it got killed by the cold. Don't think it will recover.....Why would anyone tell you to put a plant out in freezing weather! I think it is a gonner!

As to what kind of a plant it WAS--my guess would be a Balfour Aralia.

Gita

Could those be aphids? I'm not even sure if they're considered a houseplant pest...
Are these nasty things leaving a sticky residue on the leaves? That's one of the signs of aphids.
This is just off the top of my head- I don't really know what they are.

Your leaves surely are gone but you have nothing to lose by pruning the plant all the way back to within a couple of inches of the base and see if it will put out new growth. With any luck, only the leaves were damaged by the cold and the roots might have survived (crossing fingers here). Also, a complete pruning might totally eliminate all those nasty little critters you have there. I'd put all the clippings in a Zip Lock before throwing it away just to be sure you contain all the bugs.

and after all the clipping is done, if it were me, I would repot the whole thing making sure to lose as much of the old dirt as possible just in case they have bred down below the surface.

Amen! Good advice from the above!

bhaugh----I like your "smiley"! never seen that one before!!!!

Gita....
shoot! I was going to make one of them--but I don't have the first 2 characters on my simple keyboard. You must have a fancy-schmancy keybord.....Bummer.....

Thanks so much guys! I hope re-potting the plant and snipping off all of the leaves will cure the poor fellow!

Thanks so much for your help!!! I'll post an update in a few weeks :)