---
title: "Hi everyone, first time monstera (and plant) owner here. My plant was…"
description: "Hi everyone, first time monstera (and plant) owner here. My plant was doing ok about a week after reporting, but I’ve been noticing lots of centipedes (maybe…"
url: "https://getplanta.com/community/UeI834LBSHCioL8MwLcQxA/6507428933717b2dffdf314d"
community: "Monstera Maniacs"
author: "Samantha"
published: "2023-09-17T18:16:41.241Z"
language: "en"
image: "https://images.getplanta.com/v1/resize/M_VN_EllWsjQLJs8oOGGICF0M6yFMGZEWgsy5rmu0Tc/6844a320576b4f5fa6182f78a911ca4e.webp?size=large"
---

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# Hi everyone, first time monstera (and plant) owner here. My plant was…

_Posted by Samantha on 2023-09-17_

Hi everyone, first time monstera (and plant) owner here. My plant was doing ok about a week after reporting, but I’ve been noticing lots of centipedes (maybe millipedes?) in the soil… it was driving me insane, I thought maybe I was too afraid to clean the roots thoroughly the first time and did a poor job with repotting. I was removing about 3 worms /day for the past week. I bought this plant about a month ago, and it had given me my first leave last week, another one on the way (photos included), overall it looked happy and I was happy, but I was afraid of the well-being of the plant as winter is coming and didn’t want to wait to repot until spring if necessary. Long story short, I accidentally stepped on one of the leaves stems (the upcoming leave mother), and now I’m super afraid I’ve permanently damaged my plants foliage. Any input? Can it recover? Can I do anything to help this leaf and the upcoming one? Also, I watered thoroughly the first time I repotted but it was very stressed for about a week or two, so I’m afraid to water this new soil now, any suggestions about that as well?

Summary: 1) stepped on my monstera stem while repotting, a baby leaf is coming and I’m afraid of it’s well-being. 2) how much should I water at this point? Most recent leave and plant overall look droopy :(

![Attachment 1 of 1](https://images.getplanta.com/v1/resize/M_VN_EllWsjQLJs8oOGGICF0M6yFMGZEWgsy5rmu0Tc/6844a320576b4f5fa6182f78a911ca4e.webp?size=large)

## 2 comments

### carsandcalatheas commented on 2023-09-17

I’m genuinely confused as to how bugs ended up in your soil? If your soil is properly sealed, this shouldn’t be an issue. i used to tape shut my soil bags, but now i keep them in air tight plastic containers. this allows me to store them outside without the worries of water, bugs and more. i definitely think you need to invest in a new bag of soil. cut off the broken leaves, they’re like an old relationship - no use keeping them hanging on for life. also please make sure when you repot that the pot is 1-2 inches bigger than the root ball. It might be the picture but the pot looks very big. Monsteras are very hardly plants. So don’t worry, you haven’t ruined anything for yourself! With some self care she will be back to good as new. I would also buy a moss pole or something similar to stake the plant up, it’s only going to be sooner or later you’re forced to stake it up. they need to have support to grow. best of luck and don’t be afraid to ✂️ off any unhealthy leaves a couple inches from the base.. i promise a new leaf will come in it’s place!

### Margaret🌱🤎 commented on 2023-09-17

this happened to me as well! I am way to scared of centipedes to deal with it so personally i propagated my favorite pieces and i’ll just repot those

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