Question
My mom has little tiny white bugs in the soil of her houseplants.  They are only in the soil and dont seem to be on the leaves.  Some of the leaves are turning yellow.  She had them once before about 5 months ago and was able to get rid of them by transplanting all of them into fresh soil and washing the roots and pots in a mixture of water and bleach.  This took an entire week and was ver difficult.  Do you have any advice?

Answer
Cyn,

The white bugs in the soil are the larva stage of fungus gnats. They are attacking the roots because the plants are being overwatered and the roots are beginning to rot so the fungus gnats larva are going after the rotten root material just like fruit gnats go after rotting fruit laying on the kitchen counter. Your mother should be dumping all excess water out of the drain trays out of her house plants an hour after she waters the plants so the plants is not sitting in a tray full of water and the roots begin to rot. Also the top 2 inches of soil should be dry before the plants are watered again then the plant will not be overwatered.

Right now to kill the bugs in the soil your mom can water the plant with 1/2- 1 cup of rubbing alcohol depending on the size of the plant and that should kill the insects without overwatering the plant. Then let it dry out more. That should solve the problems. Good luck.

Darlene