This is getting scary!! Am I infected??

[morphiii]

It started with a white pit on the top leaf on the right ( Picture 4) and now there are one small one on the top left (picture 3) and another pit on the second leaf Picture 1 and 2) on the left.

Is this bacteria of fungi??

Please help !!

[MariahK]

hmmmm I have seen this before but it was on a plant that I didn't buy. But I would love to know what caused it so in the future I will know.

[Anton]

You have got "night creatures" munching on the leaves at night.

My Phals and Hard Cane Dens get attacked just like that. There are sometimes little nasties who hang about in the potting mix and come out at night for a snack.

They tend to munch about halfway through the thickness of the leaf leaving those tell tales little pits. I found one a few days ago that is a long line about an inch and a half long.

Get out the anti pest stuff, whether it be the soap, Neem oil or whatever and that will stop the little buggers in their tracks.

[morphiii]

Originally Posted by Anton

You have got "night creatures" munching on the leaves at night.

My Phals and Hard Cane Dens get attacked just like that. There are sometimes little nasties who hang about in the potting mix and come out at night for a snack.

They tend to munch about halfway through the thickness of the leaf leaving those tell tales little pits. I found one a few days ago that is a long line about an inch and a half long.

Get out the anti pest stuff, whether it be the soap, Neem oil or whatever and that will stop the little buggers in their tracks.

I sprayed the leaves with a fungicide that is 1% neem oil about a week ago.
Should I spray the medium and the roots as well?

I also have physan 20, will that work?

Thanks in advanced.

[brookn]

Hi physan is for fungus predominately. Spray with neem again this week. Someone posted this somewhere, it is systemic, does not cure fungus. Spray one week, then the next, wait two weeks then spray again. Then once a month from there as a preventative.

[Anton]

I think Cynthia has mentioned about Neem oil or something else that is systemic and you let it soak down into the potting mix to kill the eggs, adults and lavae of whatever it is.

What I did when I found these marks was to immerse the pot in water to just above the potting mix so that it just started to float within the pot and left it there for an hour or so and watched the little critters coming up for air.

Obviously for them, BIG MISTAKE !

NOT MANY OF THESE CRITTERS CAN HOLD THEIR BREATH FOR VERY LONG.

[pikevi]

Anton: What a great idea of immersing the whole pot to force the insects out!

I think it will be better to have a thin film of Neem oil floating on the surface of the water as well.

Thanks for a simple and practical method to get rid of 'hiders'

[Anton]

I found out the critters were tiny slugs, although they like water, they don't snorkel very well.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Tiny slugs? Do we have bush slugs now in addition to bush snails?

[morphiii]

Anton thanks for the tip. I will try it.

Just wondering though, won't soaking it for an hour drown the roots?

[E-Jag]

Morphiii - In a word, no. I water all of my phals and dends, and one catt, my immersing them in a tub of water deep enough so that the medium just begins to float. I soak them for an hour, hour and a half. Like Anton, I watch to see what may crawl out and hit 'em with worm tea or insecticide.

_________________
E-Jag

[Anton]

Being in the city, no they are not bush slugs Cynthia.

They are a miniature version of the fullsize ones. They only grow to about 3mm max, don't know the imperial measurement.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Well, it would be nice to have a common name for these slugs. For the miniature snail equivalent, the common name is bush snail, not to mean that they only live in the Australian outback. I don't think that 'bush' in this case is an Australian idiom. And these guys are passed from collection to collection thru the addition of a new plant in anything open like a bark mix. So, I hope that the US Agriculture Dept. does a good job in keeping the 'bush' slug out of the US. The bush snail is already more scourge than we have patience for.

[morphiii]

Well I soaked the plant in Physan 20 for about an hour. I didn't see any critters came out, but so far I haven't had any new pits. Fingers crossed.