Garden Plot: Gnats, other pests can be a buzzkill for indoor plants

This orchid has a severe mealybug infestation, so it’s being discarded. (Diane Lynch / For The Ark)

I recently noticed tiny gnats in my house. One would always be around my face but didn’t bite me or land on me. They were simply annoying and hard to swat. For years, I’ve had similar little gnats in my bathroom, which apparently reproduce in the algae that accumulates in some shower drains. Those I keep under control by pouring some ammonia into the drain periodically. But the gnats on the main floor are new and seem to emanate from the Christmas cactuses in my dining room windows, which have the best light for these plants that are native to a rain forest in South America, need moist soil and just a little direct sunlight but not too much.

If you have plants that spend the summer and fall months outdoors and you bring them inside during the winter months, the warmer indoor temperatures will speed up their reproduction cycle, meaning — you guessed it — more of these little annoying critters. They don’t bite but are attracted to humans because we emit carbon dioxide as we breathe, and apparently we sometimes smell nice to them.

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