Bringing in potted plants

[ckay87]

This is always a problem for me - brining in a potted plant for the winter. I'm always afraid of also bringing in all the critters who have made that pot their home all summer. (I'll never forget the Christmas that we were infested with flies!) Usually what I do is just re-pot the whole plant in bagged potting soil.

Looking for another solution, though. This year I have a large hibiscus that I want to bring in. It's in a huge pot with some special soil that I mixed up. I'd rather not dump it and re-pot it, but I don't want to be a new home to all the earwigs, flies, gnats, whatever that are in there.

What do you guys do?

[amid chaos]

I repotted everything last year...I envisioned bringing in a snake or two. :earseek:
My parents brought in a small toad one year and it lived on the plant all winter.

This year I left the plants on the steps leading to a porch so I'm not worried enough this year to repot.

I think your only guarentee is to repot..sorry.

[DebºoºS]

You just never know what's lurking in the soil. Frogs, flies oh my:eek: I didn't want to repot everything again so I left all the potted house plants in the gazebo. They'll get a houseplant insecticide spray before they come in.

Without repotting there's no way of knowing for sure.

[UrsulasShadow]

Another thing you can try is sinking the pot into soapy water and letting it soak for a while. The water will float out anything near the surface, the soap will kill many insects, and it will make it inhospitable for any of the larger critters. Don't leave it in the water too long...just an hour or so.

When you bring it in the house (after you drain it well and flush the soapy water out of the pot), give it a thorough spraying with a houseplant-safe insecticide. That should take care of any leaf-dwelling critters.