No matter if you’re a seasoned gardener or you’ve just started bringing plants home, you probably know that worms can be awesome or terrible for your potted plants, depending on the type and quantity of worms found in the soil.
Usually, however, you will want to get rid of most of the worms, if not all of them that you may encounter your potted plants.
Good news is we have 4 simple steps to take to guarantee your plants are worm-free!
- Remove the worms by hand when you repot the plant.
- Soak the roots and soil of the plant.
- Use a chemical or organic insecticide.
- Get some natural enemies of the worms (predators).
If you are wanting to be a worm removal expert, this article is for you!
We will summarize how to do each of these processes and how to get rid of your worms from plant pots!
4 Solutions to Rid your Potted Plants of Worms
We performed all the heavy lifting for you.
And we are thrilled to share that we have four super simple solutions for removing unwanted worms in your potted plants.
1. Repot and Remove Worms by Hand
At some point in their life cycle, most potted plants will require repotting to allow for the adequate supply of nutrients to the soil for the plant to live, in addition to the appropriate space for roots to spread as your plant grows.
If you have noticed worms have taken residence in your potted plants, all you must do is carefully take the plant out of the old soil, rinse the plant, and then plant the plant in a new clean pot with sterilized soil.
Here are a few step-by-step instructions to help ensure you complete this process properly:
- Before you prepare the plant for repotting, consider cleaning and sterilizing the new pot with a diluted bleach spray to prevent bringing any possible pests to the replanted plant.
- When pulling the plant out, gently shake all the excess soil from the roots. After, lightly spray the roots with water to check for worm eggs hiding in the tendrils.
- When repotting, it is best to use sterilized soil. Any store-bought soil is ready to use, but if you are utilizing soil from your backyard, you can heat it in the microwave or oven to kill any possible pests.
That’s all there is to it!
Now, you have a beautifully healthy, repotted plant without any worms.
2. Soak the Roots; Soil of the Plant
You’ve probably heard that worms love a damp soil environment, and that’s true, but they don’t appreciate saturated soil.
If you want to quickly and easily get rid of worms, we suggest the following: Soak the roots of the plant (including surrounding soil) in warm water and a tiny bit of insecticide for about 20 minutes.
Keep in mind that some of the worms will decide to try to escape the treatment, but most will die.
If you were hoping to keep the worms for your worm bin, then this may not be the best solution.
3. Use an Insecticide
There are plenty of options available on the market for pesticides – including chemical and natural.
Both are great choices, and it truly comes down to your decision in choosing the best insecticide for your home and plants.
Be mindful of the labels no matter which pesticide you end up using; you want to make sure it is safe for your plant.
Indoor and outdoor pesticides are not the same and if your plants are inside your home, you will want to go with the option for indoor use so is it safer for you and your pets.
Many experts recommend neem oil to combat a worm infestation because it is safe on your plants, even edible plants.
What We Like: Neem will kill the harmful worms in your plants like grub worms or hornworms, without bothering the beneficial earthworms.
4. Let a Natural Predator Take Care of Your Worms
This is only really useful for your potted plants if they are outside. Otherwise you’d be bringing the Jumanji experience into your home!
But if your backyard potted plants are taking a hit from an invasion of worms, you can bring in an environmental predator into the situation who will eat the worms, and set up residence in your backyard without harming your plants!
Of course, since we’re talking about worms here, you will have animals such as praying mantis, frogs, fireflies and birds that would be all too happy to take care of this for you!
So, you might be saying to yourself, how can I get these wild animals to come over and dine on my worms?
Here are a couple helpful suggestions:
- To draw birds, fill up a bird feeder close to your potted plants.
- Frogs will come if you have a small still pool of water nearby, which will attract bugs and essentially attract hungry frogs.
- Even fireflies like to live in shrubs, so if you put your potted plants by shrubs, worms could very much be eaten by them at night.
- Praying mantis love to play in the tall grass, so if you have any in your backyard, you can try moving your potted plants to that area with any luck.
While this tactic isn’t necessarily foolproof, it is chemical-free, cost-effective, and easy to do today!
Final Thoughts
It can be difficult to determine if your plant has worms before they proliferate and destroy your plant’s leaves, but you can check to see if there is any activity in the soil just below the bottom of the pot at night when worms are most active.
If you do find worms, you are most likely aware that they can be exceptionally harmful to your potted plants in that they can eat away on the roots and even the stems and leaves.
Though some botanists will suggest that there could be some benefits by having a few worms in plant pots, (you know, for the benefits of making nutrients more available to the potted plant) you really need to be quite certain which are bad and which are good.
Also, after making that distinction of what worm is what, you would have to be careful that your few worms living in the soil did not multiply and devour the stems and leaves of your beautiful potted plant.
At the end of the day, it might just be best to free all potted plants of worms, and now you know how!