Prevention is Better than Cure

Do not invite them in! Pests are typically invited by the grower and they can be on the person or on any plant clones that are being introduced. This problem is particularly prominent if the plants are not being grown from seed and the mother has not been free of pests.

To help avoid this keep a separate set of clothes for the growing area and ensure you get changed into them every time you access the room. This will help to avoid the possibility of bringing in new pests via your clothing.

Plants can get stressed too and poor temperatures, lack of food and lack of nutrients can be a cause of this. A plant's natural reaction is to release defence hormones into their cell walls and into the atmosphere. Also this is aimed as a defence mechanism, any parasites and fungus in the vicinity will perceive this as a weakness and are therefore attracted to the plants.

Keeping your plants in the optimum conditions with the ideal temperature, sufficient water and correct nutrients will help to prevent this.

Other forms of stress, such as topping your plants and giving them a healthy air flow are actually positive as they will cause them to grow stronger to a point where bugs will have little incentive to attack them.

A very important and a very straightforward part of gardening. Keep all the tools, equipment, clothing and environment as clean as you can.

In addition, place sticky strips in various places. Bugs are attracted to yellow so use yellow strips. As well as catching them this will give you a good indication of any infestation.

There are many predators available that will fight the parasites. Ladybirds are one great example - they will attack any bugs that harm the plants but will not harm plants themselves.

The main reason that bugs prosper indoors is that they don't have to endure the rain, wind and chill that they would outdoors.

Foliar feeding can combat this. Spraying the leaves with the nutrients, particularly on the underside, can irritate and prevent an outbreak of bugs. Using wetting agents within the spray can enhance this further. Read more on foliar feeding from Maximum Yield