Plants add beauty and character to a room. Even if you don’t have a green thumb, plants pretty much take care of themselves if you pot them correctly and water at proper intervals. I love it when plants thrive, it makes me happy.
I don’t love it when pesky gnats and spider mites thrive more than the plant.
This spring, my daughter moved back home after graduating from college. She brought with her all the plants she had accumulated in her 3 years living in an apartment. We didn’t have room for them in our house, so she placed them in our teahouse in the backyard for their living quarters.
The teahouse acted like a greenhouse for the plants. They thrived beyond my wildest imagination. Outside in a greenhouse-like place, there is always the opportunity for extra moisture in the soil and for little pesky bugs to thrive.
Oh, my, the plants were sure gorgeous as we loaded them up into the back of my SUV to take them off to her new apartment.
I was jealous but thankful she left a few behind for me to decorate my office and my q-quarters with.
We had gone shopping at thrift stores to find the pots she used for the planting of the sprouts left for me to treasure. And we bought and planted a palm tree into my large croc. The palm thrived well. I was pleased until I took a closer look.
The week before we were getting ready to move my daughter, we discovered the palm tree was covered with spider mites. Ugh. All over the plant.
Who would’ve known it is possible to have a green thumb for growing spider mites?
So we gave it a haircut or branch-cut if you will. I didn’t want to try and wash off all those spider mites by hand. Yuck.
We apparently didn’t think twice about needing to clean the used pots or verify that the soil was free from gnat larvae. I don’t even know if you can see it? How do you know if it has larvae or not?
And, even though we did look, we didn’t see the spider mites on the plants before we purchased them from Wal-mart at the end of the season clear out.
- Memo to self #1 – one should always thoroughly wash potting containers with 1 part bleach and 9 parts water when you’re buying used. I did not do so.
- Memo to self #2 – one should buy fresh potting soil when transplanting sprouts and make sure the soil dries out completely before watering again.
- Memo to self #3 – if a plant is on clearance, pass on buying it.
As I’m typing another one of those pesky little gnats flew by in front of my face. Where the heck are they coming from? I peeked into the pot next to my computer monitor on the shelf to the left.
That tiny little black bug on the stem has lots of little friends who scurry off when you get close to them. Double Yuck.
Ewe……..it is covered with little crawling and flying black gnats. I looked at all the other plants in the room, and holy crap, they have the pesky gnats too. I’ve been noticing them flying around all week after I watered the pots last weekend. They breed rapidly in moist soil.
I found this website with instructions on how to trap the gnats. Cool, I love home remedies they are always fun to try. Even better if they work.
I placed the traps out yesterday. But, they aren’t working. It looks like I’ve had a beer party and left glasses around the room instead of a bug catching success.
There are no gnats in the traps, they are clinging tightly to the plants instead.
Guess I know what my project for the day is. I’ll be shopping for new potting soil and containers and repotting the poor plants.
And…maybe I’ll donate the pots to the thrift store. I should probably check with my daughter to see if she has discovered any new friends in her pots too?
