Yup. It happened, and its going to continue to happen when you buy and bring in outside plants into your personal plant oasis. Thrips, Mealys, and Aphids, the worst of the worst for your plants that can easily hitch a ride. Don't think you're invincible, it affects everyones collection at one point or another. We've always been on top of our plant care but life was lifing and boom, an outbreak happens.
There are two methods of managing the situation, alright three, but let's refrain from setting the plants ablaze. The two choices entail chemically spraying the plant from leaf to root or adopting a more organic approach.
If you know us, we are plant and pet lovers so we went for the more environmentally and pet friendly approach, beneficial bugs. Over the years we have bought and released several different kinds of beneficial bugs to help keep the pests and harmful issues at bay.
We've tried many of different brands, Natures Good Guys, Arbico Organics, you name it, but nothing has compared to Natural Enemies line of defense. We got in the Swirskii Ulti Mite Satchets , Entomite , and their Sticky Traps . They shipped fast and we went right to work with applications.
Simple and sooo effective. Packaged individually with a hook to hang effortlessly on the plant stems and right near the precious leaves where Thrips and Mealys LOVE to cause damage. A great feature is the perforated oval hole in the packaging. Unlike competitors the hole is fully cut out not just a simple puncture in the packet itself. Making it easy for the the Swirskii mites to find their way out of the sachet and onto the plants.
The Sachets meticulously cultivate an ideal propagation environment for Swirskii Mites, encouraging the prolific reproduction of multiple offspring generations throughout their4-6 week lifespan.
While not required, Our method of application was at night, with high humidity. We gave them a solid 2 days of shade, no grow lights, to hatch and fully attack . Yes, we promise your plants will survive and the Mite ''army". Our cabinet glass was covered with them crawling to eat the bad bugs in every nook and cranny.
These are way more beneficial than the common small traps you stick in your soil. Not only are they larger and more sticky, they're hangable! Just about any reptile or plant keeper will admit the soil gnats are more than annoying and are extremely intrusive. The gnats have been insane in our reptile room and now with the thrips outbreak, we knew it was a must!
Continuing the discussion of soil pests, Thrips, and fungus gnats. The Entomite mix was something we are extremely excited about. These mites are mixed into peat moss and are larger than the Swirskii Mites. Man, these mites were ready for war as soon as they were poured on top of the soil they were on the hunt. They fight against Thrips, Root Aphids, and fungus gnats which as mentioned before is needed in my Reptile enclosures.
In a nut shell, we keep specific reptiles to preserve the species. However there are severe risks that come with importing wild caught reptiles. They can come in with severe health concerns like Chiggers, Mites, and other harmful parasites that can attack and kill them just like with plants. Entomites work to eat them from not just the soil but off of their scales and bodies. We do want to also add they do not harm Isopods in Bioactive enclosures.
The sure level of angst that these bugs have showed and are still showing a week later have been mind blowing. Like originally stated, Natural enemies is far superior to any other brand I've tried! We have a code (Maddwoods10) that you can use here available to anyone that wants to give them a try. Promise you won't regret the investment on organically protecting your plants and reptiles. (or use Maddwoods10 at checkout).