Thanks for the suggestions. I had another terrarium next to this one with the same pests, and I did manage to save a prayer plant cutting from it. The plant had sent out some new sprouts from the roots, and I kept one sprout with two tubers on it that had not or had just barely broken the soil surface, figuring that it would not have nearly the number of pests. Then, I soaked it in soapy water for the better part of a day before planting it. It had gotten a tint of brown by the end of the soaking, and I was thinking I had killed it, but it eventually sent up a shoot. I have not seen any signs of pests on it so far, but I figure I'll treat it with soapy water anyway to make sure. At this point, most of the ivy in the terrarium that is left has died, so I may have lost any chance to save cuttings from it, anyway. -Jmcat

Hi Nancy, The Mites came to me in some expesive Chimeras. I ordered and received plants from multiple people around the same time and put them all together for isolation purposes. I know this was a stupid thing to do and I have had a very hard lesson. I will never know for sure where the mites came from. The plants looked very healthy when I got them. It was about 6 weeks before I began to notice that they just did not look right. My theory is that some mite egges hatched and the infestation began. I have grown African Violets for many years but had never seen mite damage. The signs of mites infestation are very subtle at first and truly do mimic other culture problems. I tried multiple things such as repotting, leaching the soil, checking the PH, and shortening the light hours trying to determine what was wrong. Because of the type of damage I was seeing on the plants, I finally came to the conclusion that it was broad mites. I ordered the microscope that plugs right into my computer and found the mites on the very first leaf I looked at. I ordered some AVID, collared my plants, and am going through a series of dips. I am also considering trying one of the new miticides, FORBID, that kills all stages of mites from eggs to adults. I did take some pictures of the damaged plants and you can see them in my PhotoBucket album. There are also more of the little movies showing the mites on African Violet leaves. The mites are kind of champagne colored and are easier to see on the darker backed leaves than the lighter ones. Best wishes, ItsDeb Here is a link that might be useful: Mites, and Violets

Shamae, How big are the bugs? I know you posted a photo, but without something whose size is known (like, for example a dime or a penny or something) placed beside them to provide context, it is hard for us to understand what size your pests are. Spider mites are roughly the size of the dot over the letter "i". They are very hard to see with the naked eye and hard to view in a photo, though once you're used to seeing them, you can flip over a leaf and look at the underside of it and see the tiny mites on the plants then. Sometimes, folks new to spider mites aren't sure if they are seeing spider mites and we tell them to hold a clean white sheet of paper underneath a plant leaf and thump it. Tiny insects the size of a period will fall onto the paper and begin moving, and if that happens, they likely have spider mites. It actually is easier to identify mites on plants by the damage they do than by seeing the mites themselves. If you can tell us more about your pests, perhaps we can help you with an ID. If, by chance, they are the same size as spider mites, I'd suspect chiggers, but the pests in your photo look larger....more like the size of aphids? Not that I'm saying they are aphids, but rather that's just the size they are. Are you here in OK? Was your compost wet or was it dry? The more info you share, the better we might be able to help you figure out what it is that you're seeing. Or at least what it isn't. Dawn

All of those methods may work but even if you kill them off you still have a nasty film on the leaves. Unless you have a palm so big and heavey you cant move it, it only makes sence to take it out for the summer. months of rain really clean it up. In addition you will get your strongest growth out of it. I have a double roebi that has about a foot of trunk and is ablut 2.5 feet overall. They were languishing in a grocery store parking lot when I got them last October for 8 bucks. I had to cut off quite a bit of the fronds as it was pot bound, under-watered, and getting no sun. I repotted it and it made a SLOW comeback over the winter. It's been outside in full sun since the first week of May and it looks good as new. it has already become one of my most attractive palms.