Question
A little background; I bought a Majesty Palm from Home Depot and I thought it would be a great indoor house plant. I never replanted the plant so I just left it in the same pot I received it in; of course I put the same pot in a different bigger pot. Anyway...I recently took my Majesty Palm out to water it (every two weeks), and I noticed that there was white stuff on my plant, I also noticed little insects moving around in the soil. I took the pot out of the bigger pot and there were caterpillars at the bottom of the bigger pot. My natural instincts where to panic, as I'm very afraid of any insects. I was furious, but I cannot get a refund. It is unfair that they did not inform me about this. And also in my part, I should've done research before buying such a great plant. How can I remove these pests for good? I feel disgusted to have the plant inside my home after finding insects, what should I do? Please help.

Answer
Hi Alex, Ok, no need to panic here,,this is a common occurrence and problem; Nurseries ship these plants in containers that are meant for transition only. You need to take the palm outside and dump it out of that container (for future reference, always change out any plant you buy from the original container and repot) and shake off all the soil from the root ball; (this is after you have bought a new potting mix, ie: Miracle-Grow , Peters etc. and a small bag of gravel or pebbles)...line the bottom of the new container with an inch of gravel/pebbles and then fill two thirds up with the soil, then place the root ball in the center and back fill up to the same level it was in its original container, NO DEEPER. Water it well, resituate it and then add a little more soil to bring it back up to its prewater level.The insects and eggs were in the old soil, so you should not have any more problems with them, but keep an eye out anyway, and if you see any more let me know and we will address them. You shouldn't have any more problems however. Nick