I was given a gardenia in a pot as a parting gift from a fellow house-sharer a few years ago. I keep it as a houseplant on a bedroom windowsill.

It's looked increasingly sickly since then, but it's bounced back a few times as well. But lately, nothing I do seems to stop it shedding leaves and withering away. It now only has a few left.

I have noticed that there are crawling bugs in the compost - tiny ones. Since I'm sure I've solved all the other problems it might have had with its environment (soil fertility, acidity, humidity, temperature) I have a feeling these bugs are probably eating its roots.

What can I do to get rid of them?

I was given a gardenia in a pot as a parting gift from a fellow house-sharer a few years ago. I keep it as a houseplant on a bedroom windowsill.

It's looked increasingly sickly since then, but it's bounced back a few times as well. But lately, nothing I do seems to stop it shedding leaves and withering away. It now only has a few left.

I have noticed that there are crawling bugs in the compost - tiny ones. Since I'm sure I've solved all the other problems it might have had with its environment (soil fertility, acidity, humidity, temperature) I have a feeling these bugs are probably eating its roots.

What can I do to get rid of them?

edit #1:

Adding a picture of the plant as it currently survives. A sorry state indeed.

Note the streak of yellow along the veins of the leaf in the foreground; that came on extremely fast; a matter of days. Furthermore, after the dunking treatment I described yesterday, the same discolouration has noticeably receded on some of the other remaining leaves; this is in under 24 hours.