HELP! Pest attack on my CPs!

[vankavstanka]

Hello everyone! 

I am new to the forum, so let me introduce myself first! My name is Vaneni, I am from Armenia (a country where even the botanical garden does not have any CP!!!!). If i do ask too many question or talk too much, do forgive me. I am a beginner, i love my plants and i am in panick! 

 

I have three plants, dionaea, drosera? and sarracenia?. 

 

so i bought my plants in Moscow, from a hypermarket Auchan (those with French connections will know it) mid October. Even though I traveled with them in my hand baggage, they did suffer some physical damage upon arrival. Brown leaves, cuts. I guess the plants were in a lot of stress. 

A few days after i was home i noticed a teeny tiny white bug in the soil. it disappeared so quickly made me doubt i saw it in the first place. so i forgot all about it. My plants quickly recovered from the travel stress. drosera produces lots of dew, sarracenia has grown new leaves up to 10 cm long (within two month!!).

2 weeks ago i noticed that there are after all tiny white bugs in my plants. all three of them. there is no damage to the plants (i dont see any with naked eye), i see bugs mostly in the soil. they rarely come out. i found one dead inside sarracenia. they are very small, probably 1 mm or less. i saw an even smaller black one once (maybe a baby one??!!).

i am pretty sure i bought them already infected. they were too close to other ordinary flowers in the shop and i suspect the bugs are probably smth popular among all the plants and not just CPs.

 

now to the questions, hope you guys can help me figure out what to do!

 

- Could you please confirm i got the plant names correct.  (pictures will follow soon) there was no labeling on the plants, just says CP mix.

- Should i repot them ASAP?? this is quite tricky as i read i should use peat moss and perlit mix. I got the perlit but there is no way i can find peat moss or anything similar here in Armenia.  can i repot them a month later? (i can order peat moss online, it will take a month to arrive) or is there smth else i can use instead of peat moss. they sell an orchid mix here, can i use it??

- How else can i get rid of the bugs? Are they dangerous? i had a sneak peak at one of the roots and it looked healthy to me. but i should mention i do not have any experience in root health. Should i use chemicals? or will repotting  help alone? also i read somewhere i can place the plant in the water for two days and all the bugs will die out. Is this true?? Should i try it?

- Is it ok to leave the plants like that, since it looks like they are happyly thriving? I should probably say if i did not see the bugs, i would never suspect anything was wrong with the plants.

 

looking forward to talk to you all and to hear all the great advices!!! thx!!

 

 

 

 

 

[Planthobby.nl]

Sounds like springtails to me. They are harmless. In fact, I like to have them in my terrarium because they eat fungus and dead plant material:)

[Gaz]

HI Vankavstanka, welcome to the forum.

 

The pictures you were going to post would help us get an idea of the general health of your plants and photo of one of the bugs would be great too if you have macro capability on your camera (even then they might be difficult to see). As for repotting, you said your plants had just recovered from the previous trauma of the trip home from Moscow so, unless they begin to look seriously unhappy, I'd be inclined to wait until Spring arrives.

 

Good luck and keep posting.

[vankavstanka]

great! thanks for the replies! i will post the photos as soon as i am home. 

i dont think they are springtails. they dont jump when i touch them. just moving quickly. (relatively)

[vankavstanka]

here are the photos. for some reason i could not include them inside the message. so i put the links.

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152562200066134&set=a.10152562199891134.1073741829.696706133&type=3&theater

[cookie0117]

I don't see any pest problems that would concern me if they were mine.  If you keep the drosera capensis in between the sarrencia (purpurea or a hybrid of) and VFT, it will mop up anything that comes out of the soil.  The plants look like they could do with more light though.  Also they wont benefit from being kept in a tank with high humidity, it will cause more problems later on with fungus/mold and rot.  The sar and vft will be needing a dormancy but the capensis does not, although you can treat them the same.  The capensis will die back but will regrow once it gets warm again, they are virtually unkillable.

[Gaz]

I agree entirely with cookie, the plants look fine. I find that D. capensis doesn't die back in winter under my conditions, although I keep the red for and yours appears to be the white. It also self-sets readily once the seed pods ripen.  I don't think you have anything to be concerned about but, as cookie says, let the sar and vft have their dormancy and watch the humidity in the tank as there won't be much air movement in there.

[vankavstanka]

Ok. So I should keep the drosera separate?

I keep them in tank becuz the air in armenia durig the winter is very dry. In the summer there wont be need for it. I have a lid for the tank which I leave semi open so the air could circulates. Do gou think this is wrong?

also could you suggest how I hybernate my plants. Any good guide you would recommend? Internet is full of advices. I evrn saw a girl who put the vft in the plastic bag and inside the fridge. I am reluctant to follow her example. Also I should mention winters are very harsh in armenia. Its minus and lots of snow. Inside we keep the temp around 22-25 celsius. The plants are on the window shelf over the radiator so they are probably 1-2 degrees warmer.

[dimitar]

Ok. So I should keep the drosera separate?

 

It is up to you.

 

I keep them in tank becuz the air in armenia durig the winter is very dry.

 

All 3 plants don't need high humidity. Just grow them freely on your window.

 

 You can put the Sarracenia an VFT in cool to cold room with temps bellow 10C during the winter months.

Edited December 15, 2014 by dimitar

[vankavstanka]

Thx for the reply, although I feel a bit more confused now. ;)

For hybernation purposea if I keep them in a cold room, do they need light? I mean can it be a room with no windows or not. Do I need to water them?

I should add that I have 1-2 cm water in tank and I let it dry out and then I add new water. I am hoping this way there will be humidity but not too much to let mold and rotting.

[dimitar]

 although I feel a bit more confused now. ;)

 

 

In order to keep away from future confusions, just do your homework. Don't be lazy ...

[numpty]

Thx for the reply, although I feel a bit more confused now. ;)

For hybernation purposea if I keep them in a cold room, do they need light? I mean can it be a room with no windows or not. Do I need to water them?

I should add that I have 1-2 cm water in tank and I let it dry out and then I add new water. I am hoping this way there will be humidity but not too much to let mold and rotting.

Yes, even in a cold room they'll need some light. Not necessarily bright, but not pitch darkness. Keep the soil damp, but not wet. I find that reduced photoperiod and soil dampness are my main triggers for dormancy here. My plants start going to sleep even when nightly minimum temps are above 15 degrees (we're only just getting down below 15 at night now and the plants stopped growing quite some time ago).