Hi, recently I found out that my indoor plants are slowly being destroyed by pests.. ◡̈
I seriously thought it was a problem that had to do with me watering them ineffectively or issues with light. I did notice small bugs would fly out the soil when I water my pothos sometimes but I thought it was fruit flies…This has been going on for 2.5 yrs.
I’ve done some research and I think it’s thrips. I’m not sure what to do (I live in Canada if that makes a difference) on how to kill em, would removing the soil and putting them in water solve the issue slowly? I waterboarded the leaves on all my plants but still found the bugs around the pots. I cut down my pearls n jade pothos severely as that was the one most affected (and possibly started all this), but the damage is on all the leaves. Should I cut them all off? This seriously sucks.. please help.
by Anoniiiiiiii
8 Comments
That’s definitely not a thrip.
The bugs look like gnats but Ive never had them so I dont know for sure. Otherwise I have the same pothos and they are pretty dramatic. Sometimes they want to be watered more, sometimes way less. Could be they just need some fertilizer or richer soil
I had these last year. My boyfriend made me sexy plant spray and the problem went away within 3 days. Couldn’t find the bug type either. Im in Edmonton.
It really doesn’t look like it. I would cut the affected leaves in case it is fungal but that is about it.
Looks like fungus gnats and maybe damage from moving around, animal, or sunburn?
Doesn’t look like thrips to me.
Do you see any black specks? Would be their excretions
The bug I posted definitely looks like a fungus gnat, thanks! but that wouldn’t explain the damage to the leaves. I want to add that before cutting away the first plant, all the new growth was curling inwardly really weirdly, had brown spots, and wouldn’t grow much after that. The reason I think this is thrips is because I found many spots with silver marks and small specks of black before having washed the leaves yesterday (wish I took a photo lol).
I haven’t found any other bugs besides the fungus gnats flying around, but this issue has been going on for a while and this damage is not new, all old.
I have the first plant located across a west facing window so it gets medium bright indirect light everyday and I water it when the top of the soil is dry. I’m not really knowledgeable about pests, diseases or the like, so any info is really appreciated!
Mine get burned from sun or plant lights if they get wet and then have bright light on them. They can also get damaged when unfurling as baby leaves and look like this.