Bringing Your Houseplants Back Indoors

First is checking for pests.  Any that you can see you can pick off or blast them off with a stream of water.  Be sure to check stems, the top and bottom of leaves and the place where leaves connect to the stems.  If you have tiny insects you may want to just dunk the entire plant in a pail of lukewarm water containing a few drops of dish washing liquid for about 15 minutes.  Of course, this method doesn’t work for succulents or other plants that prefer drier soil.

Insects can also be in the soil.  If you’re able, gently slide the plant out of the pot and inspect the soil.  Many bugs will be visible on the outer layers of the soil or near the drainage hole and can be easily removed.  Remove any dead foliage they could hide in.  Dunking the pot in water as mentioned above will also flush pests from the soil.  If it appears lots of bugs are in the soil you may need to repot the plant in new soil or consider whether it’s even worth bringing indoors. 

If you have enough time you might want to start spraying your plants with neem oil or any insecticidal soap at about 2 week intervals for several weeks before you bring them in.  If all else fails you can try a systemic insecticide. 

The most important thing you can do is to isolate them from your other houseplants for at least six weeks to make sure they’re pest free. 

Plants that have spent the summer outdoors are used to lots of light and chances are they won’t receive as much in the house.  You can minimize this light shock by moving them to a shady area outside for a few days before bringing them in.  Then maybe just bring them in at night for a few more days, then indoors full time.  Once inside, put them in an area where they’ll get light levels as close as possible to what they had outside.  It’s normal for plants to lose some leaves and maybe droop a bit as they adjust to their new environmental changes in temperatures, light and humidity.  After a month you should start to see them recovering. 

Hopefully your plants will recuperate nicely and you can once again enjoy them as houseplants until their next summer vacation outside.

For more information on specific pests, please see this article by paulgrow.