Thripssss.
Its been a WHILE, but anyway... I got THRIPS. Well, I'm pretty certain anyway. It was suddenly really warm after our deep freeze winter, windows have been open, never had any issues the last five years.. I noticed my dragon fruit looking a bit, weird. It was tucked a little out of sight but I saw it had a discolor to it and grabbed it to see. Then I saw BUGS ð not cute ones either and damage. (I'll include pics in the order I talk about the horrors) I chucked that dragon fruit so fast, I didn't even care. I started looking a bit more and I saw black bugs on a handful of plants ð crawling up the stems. All IDs from searching came back as thrips, fml. I (had) over 130 plants easy in the general area. Whatever had bugs, and was easily propped was chopped down to nodes and sealed up, soil tossed and pots outside to be washed. Whatever was easily replaced was chucked. SO I'm down to 40 ish large plants, rare plants and sentimental plants, a bit more managable. Everything has been sprayed in the tub with water, Captian Jack's Dead Bug and then neem a few days after. I am ONLY on week one. I've read I need to do this for 40 days? I plan to buy the systemic granules for the soil treatment, for now it's been sprayed with Cpt. Jacks along with foliage. I also have another 50 something plants across the room (open floor plan, they are on kitchen side) I have treated with neem, also blue sticky traps are in ALL plants just to keep watch. But I am SCARED! Prop box with the poor bare nodes is just perlite, the nodes have been washed in warm water and rubbed with Cpt. Jack DB. What are my chances of them traveling across the room? When should I expect to see them again? I don't see larve, but that doesn't mean they aren't there. What do I do with my African Violet? I'm afraid to get her leaves wet.. thats the only untreated plant. ALSO please show me thrip damage, I see mixed things and at this point, its all thrips and I want to barf. Things were chopped I did NOT want to chop. All dirt looks like poop now and I dislike this thrip trip. Send help #thrips #thriptrip #pests #helpneeded #chopandprop #pestcontrol #pestid
14
They actually don't look like thrips to me, but the photos are kind of blurry. Adult thrips are super skinny and have wings, they sorta resemble an eyelash. But you don't usually see many adult thrips, if you see them at all. What you WILL see with an infestation in their larvae, which are very small off white/cream color things that crawl around on top of the leaves.
@PlantBeach Do you have any more pictures? ð Your pothos pic doesnât look like thrips damage, more like watered too soon/oedema. Thrips damage looks like silver stippling, patterns that look like scratches, you will see teeny dots of black poo on the leaf undersides, and if youâre seeing a lot of adults than you wouldnât be able to miss the small whitish cream colored larvae that will be all over mostly the leaf tops like @stephonicle mentioned. My dear Shannon @SuperbRaspfern Can you tell what this is from these pictures? ðĪ
That looks like a springtail to me they are your besties! They eat bad bugs.
The dragon fruit likely just looked weird from temp changes. And then these just came on in with the open windows. I personally would be happy they will keep the bad ones away!
Thrips you would see damage on the leaves for sure. Yours look really healthy.
I'm seeing no red flags in your photos at all. Plants are not perfect. You will absolutely get brown spot and imperfections. Just remember most of the time it's nothing and just a bruise or a overwatering that happened one or 2 times.
Try not to panic at the first sight take a step back before picking up the pruners. Ask for help like you did here.
Usually it's us running around in a panic that causes the most damage.
My tips are to skip the sticky traps, they will only scare you.
It does sound like you have a bit of anxiety. So I'm sending you love, hugs and reassurance it's going to be fine. One of my children has severe anxiety and panic attacks. So I know how you are feeling.
In the future if you want to just tag me at @SuperbRaspfern and I'll try to help settle the nerves down. Hang in there my dear, take a deep breath and enjoy your plants.
I live in a farmhouse on 10 acres and there are A LOT of bugs. Most are friends and I welcome them. I sorta have to there windows don't seal in the frames and you can see outside from inside. So dust dirt (oh boy lots of dirt) and stuff just blows right on in. Bugs are just part of the country living and most are harmless to joy and plants.
Anyway hang in there K.
ðĐ·ðĐ·ðĐ· @PlantBeach @stephonicle @DreamMachine Thanks for the tag Nadia ðĐ·
The dragon fruit likely just looked weird from temp changes. And then these just came on in with the open windows. I personally would be happy they will keep the bad ones away!
Thrips you would see damage on the leaves for sure. Yours look really healthy.
I'm seeing no red flags in your photos at all. Plants are not perfect. You will absolutely get brown spot and imperfections. Just remember most of the time it's nothing and just a bruise or a overwatering that happened one or 2 times.
Try not to panic at the first sight take a step back before picking up the pruners. Ask for help like you did here.
Usually it's us running around in a panic that causes the most damage.
My tips are to skip the sticky traps, they will only scare you.
It does sound like you have a bit of anxiety. So I'm sending you love, hugs and reassurance it's going to be fine. One of my children has severe anxiety and panic attacks. So I know how you are feeling.
In the future if you want to just tag me at @SuperbRaspfern and I'll try to help settle the nerves down. Hang in there my dear, take a deep breath and enjoy your plants.
I live in a farmhouse on 10 acres and there are A LOT of bugs. Most are friends and I welcome them. I sorta have to there windows don't seal in the frames and you can see outside from inside. So dust dirt (oh boy lots of dirt) and stuff just blows right on in. Bugs are just part of the country living and most are harmless to joy and plants.
Anyway hang in there K.
ðĐ·ðĐ·ðĐ· @PlantBeach @stephonicle @DreamMachine Thanks for the tag Nadia ðĐ·
@SuperbRaspfern ðð I feel seen. Yes, I do have anxiety disorder and under very high stress at the moment (plants are just the icing on the cake) the damage was really isolated on the dragon fruit, they ATE some of it lol there was a hole and what I call frass (looked similar to squash bug frass, that brown sawdust looking stuff.) They didn't jump, I do have really poor eyes, but I didn't see prominent wings. They were on some leaves but mostly one or two per stem, crawling quickly but not at a crazy high speed. I am literally stumped, but took a major precaution and honestly I probably needed the cut down anyway.
@PlantBeach I feel you there, I too once panicked at any small thing. But Iâm so happy to have the confirmation from @SuperbRaspfern that itâs not thrips. Much love and hugs to you. ðŦķHopefully this is just a sign from the universe helping you pare down a bit and feel more relaxed with your plant babies âĨïļðŧðŠ·ðļðŠŧ
@PlantBeach I in no way was trying to be mean, I promise!!! Just sending you love and support. Honestly I totally understand how you feel. And yes, pruning never hurts they always come back fuller and more beautiful from it. I myself am a very aggressive pruner.
Sending you giant hugs because life can be so incredibly difficult at times. Hoping the downhill road soon starts to climb up into blue skies and sunny days!!!
ðĶâïļðĐ·
Sending you giant hugs because life can be so incredibly difficult at times. Hoping the downhill road soon starts to climb up into blue skies and sunny days!!!
ðĶâïļðĐ·
BTW you live in a state I love. I'm from PA and every summer we hunkered down for a while in Jersey in our boat. Love that state and its people! My Aunt lived right in the beach in a mobile home and we always looked forward to our visits. It's the only place I've ever seen horseshoe crabs. So incredibly prehistoric looking. Anyway have a great day just thought I'd share! ðĐ· Brings back great memories of childhood.
@SuperbRaspfern I took no offense, I just have quippy responses lol blame the state ð I am glad you love it here, it's great to visit. Not so much to live, its quite expensive, the riff raff gets hidden in the tourists hoards, and they are literally ripping down every tree to fit more people, that our infrastructure cannot handle ðĩâðŦ they say tourists pay our bills but, they just keep going up lol so theres that. I live directly on "the shore" (on the water, for locals, pronounced wuhhterr lol) not in a tourist town but extremely close.
But anyway, back to plants. I just don't think its springtails. My plants are usually dry, very dry. I only water when the leaves curl dry.. they did not jump, and nothing was in the soil. I dumped soil to check, not a soul. Oddly enough, I haven't seen anything at all crawling... maybe this was a freak plant incident? Maybe these mystery bugs just loved this dragon fruit and I took it away so they were OMG where the food at? Idk plant pals, I am stumped. I wish I got more pictures!!
But anyway, back to plants. I just don't think its springtails. My plants are usually dry, very dry. I only water when the leaves curl dry.. they did not jump, and nothing was in the soil. I dumped soil to check, not a soul. Oddly enough, I haven't seen anything at all crawling... maybe this was a freak plant incident? Maybe these mystery bugs just loved this dragon fruit and I took it away so they were OMG where the food at? Idk plant pals, I am stumped. I wish I got more pictures!!
Also, panic was real because I know I couldn't afford (time or money) to treat them ALL lol survival of the fittest here. 130 vs 40 is a more managable number. Anything that was tossed with no remorse, has a back up, was the back up, or I truly didn't care about it. The 40 left are my heart and soul... and I have at least another 80 plants floating around this house anyway ð this is the WORST timing because all my plant time goes outside this time of year.
@SuperbRaspfern you said your aunt lived on the beach in a mobile home... was it on LBI? ð