A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Plant pests and problems hundreds of little white eggs?

Hi everyone. I'm new to this site, but not new to house plants. I have 14 house plants and most of them are doing very well. However, one plant I bought from walmart about 2yrs ago, I noticed one day that it had what looked to be hundreds of little white eggs that were all clustered together on top of the soil. I immediately took the plant outside, bought new soil, rinsed the plant and re-potted it. Everything was fine for a while, but then eggs came back a few months ago. And now, I noticed that another one of my plants has these eggs. Does anyone know what they could be or how to get rid of them? I will post a pic. My camera isn't very good quality but you can kinda see the clusters of them.

http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq252/nenephotobucket/poorplants001.jpg

http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq252/nenephotobucket/poorplants003.jpg

It kind of looks like a fungal growth to me. Are you letting your plants dry out enough before you re-water?

Wow! Thanks for posting so quickly!! Yeah, I only water about once every two weeks. I usually check the soil before adding water. If it is fungus could it be harmful? I don't know though, they really look like little eggs to me!!

I blew up the photo as far as I could, and it still looked like fungi to me, but I could easily be wrong. A real close-up picture might help.
If it is a fungus, it won't hurt your plant. You can brush most of it off the soil for the sake of appearance....

Ok I'll try another photo!!

Ok here is more. The orange glow you see is actually from a flashlight, I was tying to spot the exact places, but the light made it look orange! Sorry about all the pics, I'm just going crazy trying to figure out what this is!

http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq252/nenephotobucket/fungi005.jpg

http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq252/nenephotobucket/fungi001.jpg

http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq252/nenephotobucket/fungi011.jpg

http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq252/nenephotobucket/fungi028.jpg

http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq252/nenephotobucket/fungi020.jpg

Welcome!
OK, if it is or isn't fungus, sprinkle some cinnamon on top of the soil. It won't hurt anything and can help. Fungi aren't fond of cinnamon. Neither are most insects. It won't hurt on your unaffected plants either. And you are in luck, it is cinnamon sale season.

I still think its a fungi. Hopefully, someone else will come along and confirm my thoughts soon.

Thank you Wild Willy! You've made me feel so much better! I was afraid that I was going to have hundreds of little bugs running around! And thank you to you too Tina! I'm gonna go buy some cinnamon tomorrow!!!

My first thought when I looked at the first picture, was fungus. Still have the same thought. I could be wrong, but I think most insects will lay their eggs on the actual plant-- when the eggs hatch the larvae eat the plant tissue. Also, the fungal kingdom is hugely diverse. Can't remember what the name of the type is, but one type of fungus has what looks like small balls at the tips of thin stalks. So the balls could be what you're seeing as eggs.

One more thought-- not all fungus is harmful. If your plants are doing well, but you don't like the look of the soil, cover it with some non-organic mulch. (Organic mulch would probably support the fungus, too.) Beads? Marbles? Pretty gravel?

Thanks Marcia! Well you can't really see them, caus I do use moss for deco to hide the soil. And plants are doing ok, so I guess I'll keep the fungus!! Thanks to everyone who helped me out!!