- Author: Sue Bohigian
African violets like filtered sun (north facing windows are best). They need sun to promote flowering. In the winter months with shorter days it is helpful to use a plant light. They like humidity and temperatures between 65 and 80 degrees. They like to be root bound and do not like to get their leaves wet. They are definitely indoor plants that need special love.
Here are the steps for propagating African violets:
Happy growing!
- Author: Elaine Lander
As the weather warms up, we see more insect activity in gardens and landscapes, and you may also notice more activity of insect pests in your home. Common insect pests found indoors in springtime can include carpet beetles, fleas, fungus gnats, and boxelder bugs.
In our recent post on carpet beetles, we shared that the adults of these beetles prefer to be outdoors but the immature larvae can feed on fabric, carpet, or other natural materials in your home. See our Pest Notes: Carpet Beetles for more management information.
Cat fleas are the most common parasite on cats and dogs in California and you may find more fleas on your pets in spring and early summer. More than just a nuisance, fleas can transmit tapeworms or other diseases to pets or humans. Our Pest Notes: Fleas has more information on managing fleas.
If you have indoor plants, fungus gnats that infest soil and potting mix can be a nuisance. These small, delicate-looking flies are similar in appearance to mosquitoes but are smaller and do not bite. Instead, fungus gnats feed on fungi and organic material but can also chew roots of houseplants. You can find more information on these flies in Pest Notes: Fungus Gnats. You may also find our Pest Notes: Houseplant Problems helpful.
While boxelder bugs tend to group together outdoors, they occasionally come indoors and may be annoying. The adult females lay eggs in cracks and crevices of the box elder tree's bark in spring so you may be seeing more of these black and red bugs if you have host trees like box elder, maple, ash, apple, cherry, peach, pear, or plum. Learn more about these pests and their look-alikes in Pest Notes: Boxelder Bug.
Looking for more management information for springtime insect pests in the home? Join us for our upcoming webinar on Thursday, May 20 at 1:00pm with Dr. Andrew Sutherland, Area Urban IPM Advisor for the San Francisco Bay Area. Click here to register for our upcoming webinar and see the webinar website for more information about our webinar series.
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Advice for Home Gardeners from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
Home Gardener's Request: I found 2 of these little beetle like bugs about 1/4-inch long in our home. Are they cockroaches? I've seen them outside as well.
Following is a link to a UC Master Gardener Program Blog from Solano County and below that is an excerpt from the blog that explains the biology and how to manage this new pest. The comments/responses included with the original blog are of interest to as they provide comments from gardeners with this cockroach in their home and garden as well as further comments from a UC entomologist: https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=14445
This cockroach is an outdoor species with a penchant for coming inside during drought, flooding, or to overwinter. It should be treated as a nuisance 'invader from outdoors' species, similar to Oriental cockroaches. General guidance to prevent this nuisance cockroach include:
- prevent household invasions by properly sealing cracks and crevices, providing fine mesh screens for open windows, and installing door sweeps (this exclusion process is a bit difficult to accomplish due to the tiny size of this roach, but it should be the goal)
- eliminate suitable habitat near structures by reducing moisture, maintaining structural perimeters (one meter from foundation) free of dense plantings and mulches, and by reducing sources of decomposing organic matter such as woodpiles and compost heaps (especially in close proximity to doors and windows)
- this species serves as a decomposer in the garden and landscape (meaning it feeds on decaying material and typically occurs in leaf litter, plant debris, mulch, and compost piles) and is unlikely to become established within structures. At most, it might be considered a nuisance, as stated above. In many cases, no management actions whatsoever will be necessary against this insect provided you follow the general guidance above.
We hope you find this information helpful for dealing with your new neighbor. Please contact us again if you have more questions.
Help Desk of the UC Master Program of Contra Costa County
Notes: Contra Costa MG's Help Desk is available almost year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays (e.g., last 2 weeks December), we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 2380 Bisso Lane, Concord, CA 94520. We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 608-6683, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/. MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Biog.
- Author: Karey Windbiel-Rojas
If you have house or office plants and have ever seen small, dark-colored insect swarming around them, your plants could have fungus gnats.
Fungus gnats are tiny flies that as adults, resemble mosquitoes. Fungus gnats don't bite people, but their presence can be annoying. Their larval stage lives in wet, overly moist potting mix, where they feed on decaying matter.
The first step to managing fungus gnats is allowing the soil in your houseplants to dry out in between watering. To read more about how to manage this pest, visit the UC IPM publication Pest Notes: Fungus Gnats.
Fungus gnats are tiny flies that as adults, resemble mosquitoes. Fungus gnats don't bite people, but their presence can be annoying. Their larval stage lives in wet, overly moist potting mix, where they feed on decaying matter.
The first step to managing fungus gnats is allowing the soil in your houseplants to dry out in between watering. To read more about how to manage this pest, visit the UC IPM publication Pest Notes: Fungus Gnats.