A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The House Plant Forum Spiders in my plant

I seem to have alot of unexpected stuff happening to me this month. This morning, I was watering my plants and I saw a spider go into one pot. I decided to check the root ball and I saw larves at the bottom. I had to trash my plant. My question is that will spiders attack my other plants? Or, do they only attack weak plants?

They don't always attack just weak plants. If you had that plant close to other plants I would check them all. There are spider mites as well. IF you see fine webbing I would take a rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball and wipe the plants down upper and bottom of leaves especially, you can also use a mister and spray them with a teaspoon of joy dish liquid in it. In extreme cases you can go to your local gardening center and get an organic spray for spider mites and spiders in general formulated for houseplants.

It was only a ordinary spider. I guess I will spray the soil on all my plants that were close to this one with water and soap. I will also try your rubbing alcohol trick.

OH this jsut gave me chills! I am sorry about your plant. I must say you were so brave to look! Spiders are so scary!

Well, the spider didn't scare me. The thing that scared me was that white larve jiggling in the roots. ERRk! I do not know what it is or how it ended up there but I need to know. I don't want this to happen to all of my other plants.

The spider might have been a coincidence...usually larvae are from other infestations. Use a clean toothpick for each plant to check them.

yes that is what I thought. My sister told me spiders were good. Maybe it was going to eat the larve!?!?. I've pocked aroud a bit in my other plants that were close to this one. I Didn't find a thing.

The plant that was infested was a plant that my sister brought back from the green house last june. Maybe this thing has been there for a while. Who knows.

Thanks for the help!

Your welcome...