Do Jade Plants Attract Flies

If you suspect your jade plant is not growing as it should, then there may be bugs interfering with its growth. Bugs could be eating away at the leaves or the root, causing the plant to focus its energy on healing instead of growing.

The first step to remedying this problem is identifying what kind of bug has infected your plant. More often than not, if you see small, flying bugs around your jade plant, it will be fungus gnats. But do jade plants attract any other kind of flying bug? Do jade plants attract fruit flies?

No. Jade plants do not attract fruit flies. However, they can attract gnats if overwatered.

Jade plants will more commonly attract gnats or mealy bugs. Fruit flies are rarely attracted to jade plants. Fruit flies are more attracted to plants with fruits and vegetables or extra moist plants. Jade plants do not bear fruit, and as succulents, they do not have a lot of excess moisture for bugs to access.

Do Jade Plants Attract Bugs

Jade plants do attract bugs. The most common bug that jade plants attract is called fungus gnats. These gnats are attracted to excess water in the soil of your plant. Overwatering is the leading cause of a fungus gnat infestation. Luckily, these bugs are more pesky than actually harmful. They will fly around your house and potentially the rest of your house, but they will not damage your plants or cause you any harm.

How Do You Get Rid Of Jade Bugs

To eliminate little fungus gnats from your jade plant will take some patience. Unfortunately, there is not an instant solution to remove them right away. Since fungus gnats are mostly a result of overwatering, you have to allow the soil to dry out for them to leave.

Allow the top 2 inches of soil to dry out, and they should leave themselves. They only go into the soil about 2 inches deep in living and reproducing, so drying out this area will speed up their evacuation. To help your plant dry out faster, consider placing it outside or in the sun.

Just be careful not to let it get too hot or sunburnt. A little bit of a warmer environment will help the soil to dry out. Plus, getting the plant outside might introduce the bugs to other plants they are more interested in, so they will leave your jade plant sooner.

How Do You Protect Jade Plants From Bugs

To protect jade plants from bugs, you have to pay attention to their watering cycle. Jade plants are very low-maintenance plants, so you may often forget to water if you don’t keep a cycle on your calendar. Then when you forget to water, you try to compensate for your mistake by overwatering, which can lead to fungus gnats.

Establish a good watering cycle for your jade plant and stick to it. This will help to ensure your plant gets the water it needs to keep growing without getting overwatered and feeling like it’s drowning.

To help protect your plant from bugs, you can also plant carnivorous plants around it. Plants like venus fly traps are great for snatching up bugs and scaring others away from an area. Carnivorous plants would help to act as a safety net to ensure your jade plants safety no matter where you have them planted.

What Are The Little White Things On My Jade Plant

White spots on your jade plant could indicate that you are dealing with mealybugs. Mealybugs are small, white, oval-shaped bugs attracted to moist areas. When they find these moist areas on plants, they settle down and drink the sap out of the plant, causing it to wilt and die over time. If you see white spots on your plant, look to see if they are moving.

The best way to remove these little bugs is to dip a cotton ball in some rubbing alcohol and wipe down your plant. If you can, remove your plant from all of your other plants so the mealybugs won’t infest those as well. Then wipe down your plant with alcohol and keep it separate for a couple of days to ensure you eliminate all of the bugs from the plant.

Can I Spray Neem Oil On My Jade Plant

Neem oil is very effective for repelling bugs from jade plants, but you have to be careful with sprays. Jade plants are susceptible to sprays and sometimes react harshly if the spray is too cold or adds too much moisture.

To make sure your plant will react well to neem oil, dab some on a cotton ball and rub one of the leaves of your jade plant. Monitor this leaf over the next few days to see if there are any adverse reactions. Then you can use your cotton balls to rub neem oil all over your plant.

This will help introduce the oil to the entirety of the plant while protecting all of it from bugs and other pests. Once your plant is used to the neem oil, you can try spraying it all over the plant. Do it once and monitor how the jade plant reacts to being sprayed. If it does well, you can add this to your regular maintenance routine for your jade plant to keep it protected from bugs.

Things To Consider

It is very rare for a jade plant to experience an infestation. Carefully inspect any new jade plants to ensure they are not coming to you already infested. This will also help ensure you do not introduce unwanted pests to the rest of your garden.

If your jade plant does become infected and it is near other plants, the best course of action is isolation. Get the affected plant away from the rest as fast as you can so it has a better chance of surviving and more effectively protect your other plants.