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Please help! I bought this variegated jade plant off Etsy and it was… | Pests, diseases and problems | Planta-fellesskap

Adrian

Please help! I bought this variegated jade plant off Etsy and it was just delivered today. The packaging was completely sealed and it wasn’t damaged, but when I opened it, it was COVERED in EARWIGS! I didn’t know what type of bug they were until later, and my mom wanted me to get the plant out of the house as soon as possible, so I rushed it outside and 3 earwigs crawled out of it and entered the mulch where I was planning on planting my tiger lily bulbs today. 😰 I have never dealt with earwigs before, especially not with a houseplant, and now I’m scared to even plant the bulbs before I can find the earwigs that got into the mulch. I haven’t been able to find them, and now the jade plant’s soil is currently too dry and very root bound, so I can’t even see if there’s any eggs or larvae of any more of these earwigs hiding in my new jade. She’s also pretty wilted and leaning to one side from the trip through the mail. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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16 kommentarer

  1. bowlwater

    I’ve never seen an earwig issue before, but id 100% repot it. clean off the roots well and, if you want to use the same pot, clean out the pot very very well and then put fresh dirt in it. from my knowledge, that should help with the earwig problem

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    • bowlwater

      the leaning should maybe fix itself once it starts to angle itself towards the shb

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    • bowlwater

      sun*

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    • Adrian

      Thank you! Do you have any advice for how to loosen the soil up enough to repot it? I have the succulent soil and perlite to repot it with, but it’s currently VERY root bound and even after soaking it with water nothing wants to budge. I can’t get any of the soil out and the roots are absolutely surrounding it.

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    • bowlwater

      i’m honestly not totally sure, but you can try carefully putting some bamboo sticks or normal sticks in there maybe to loosen up the dirt. also, in my experience, massaging the sides of the pot can loosen up the dirt and helps the plant come out. once the plant is out of the pot, use your fingers to gently take dirt off and then rise the rest of the roots in lukewarm water to get the rest off (make sure the water stream isn’t too hard so that it doesn’t bruise the roots)

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  2. Alyssa

    I would sit the root ball in a bowl of water for a couple of hours, then I’d lightly start to massage around the root ball and then as it hopefully starts to loosen I’d start to gently pull at the roots and untangle them (almost like a big knot of long hair), also, just for extra assurance, after you get the roots all cleaned off with water and soap, I’d also pour some hydrogen peroxide over the roots to kill any eggs and whatnot

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  3. Adrian

    I’ll try that! Thank you! Really appreciate the help from you both! I really love jades, so I was so excited for her to arrive in the mail, then I was pretty heartbroken to open her up and find such large bugs crawling out of her soil. Aside from the wilting on one side, she seems to be in pretty good shape, and has lots of roots, so I really hope she’ll survive. I was planning on gifting her to my great aunt, but I definitely can’t until I make sure she’s gonna be ok.

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  4. Sunny

    I’ve dealt with earwigs in my very densely planted Bonnie spider plant. I watered it outside with the garden hose too long and 7 of them crawled out. I just kept flooding it with water until no more came out. I let it dry between waterings and flooded it a couple more times over the next month until I was certain they were gone.

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    • Adrian

      Oh wow. Thanks for letting me know. Hopefully the soaking I’m giving her should help with that then. Thank you. I’m a little extra terrified cause I heard they eat Hostas and she’s currently outside being quarantined from my indoor plants (I have a 30 year old jade that I CANNOT kill and refuse to let earwigs get in) and the ONE plant I’ve got potted out there is a Hosta 😭 that I JUST repotted cause I got him from a sketchy group in my local park for 3 bucks and he was put in the wrong soil and littered with slugs. I just brought him back from the dead I don’t want him to die again 🫠

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  5. Adrian

    I am happy to report that 1. The plant didn’t produce any bugs trying to escape both the water soaking and the hydrogen peroxide soaking, and hopefully any possible larvae/eggs were killed by the peroxide, and 2. She’s been brought back into the house and I repotted her with a little succulent soil and perlite since it lost a lot of perlite in the peroxide soak. She’s in a window to hopefully help with the leaning. I think I’ll name her Valerie. Thanks for all the tips. I think y’all saved my plant. Thanks so much ☺️

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    • Meowmy

      I'm late to the party but wow! I order a lot from Etsy too but I'd be horrified to find earwigs in my delivery 😰😰😰 you handled everything perfectly.👏👏👏 Did you contact the seller about the issue?(not encouraging or discouraging you to do anything but just curious)

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    • Adrian

      I did. The seller was pretty professional about it. She didn’t offer a refund but she said she appreciated me letting her know. She said she’s never come across earwigs from where she grows the plants (she said they’re grown in South Carolina. I’m from PA, so I can’t confirm or debunk her claim)

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    • Adrian

      And for the record, I was not calm whatsoever 😂 I thought they were small roaches before I looked them up later, or something that could bite me cause they have pincers on the end of them, and I ran to ask my mom for help, giving them enough time to possibly escape in my house and possibly infect a very precious 30 yr old jade plant from my abuela. So far we’ve found none in the house, but I was a little terrified that I would. My best advice: open boxed plants from Etsy OUTSIDE 😂

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    • Adrian

      My mother (kinda understandably) has decreed ABSOLUTELY NO MORE PLANTS FROM ETSY after today. I was honestly pretty upset because I’ve gotten two plants off Etsy before, and they came in great condition. Absolutely no pest issue. I have seen quite a few sellers that only offer bare rooted plants or cuttings to avoid the risk of mold or pests possibly traveling or entering the soil, and I don’t wanna deter folks from not getting plants off Etsy. Aside from the earwigs, the plant has very strong roots and came in good condition. I was expecting at worst the risk of the plant being damaged or some fungus gnats, not EARWIGS 😂

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  6. Adrian

    I wanted to give an update on the Jade plant as an extra thanks to everyone who gave me advice on this. She’s already much less wrinkled than she was three days ago. So far I haven’t seen any other bugs come from her since soaking her in the hydrogen peroxide and water solution. Thanks so much, everyone. I think you just saved my plant.

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  7. SueB

    I have found earwigs in the bottom of cover pots in a closed IKEA plant cabinet. In a room that the windows are not opened. Those critters are bizarre!

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