Hello, I see the little black pests on there, but I am seeing two different shapes. are they mostly tiny dots or are they more elongated?

hi Andrea,
the more elongated ones are the ones I've seen moving. there are also little black dots but I haven't seen those move.

I've just seen them now on my string of turtles, which is not showing any brown spots or anything yet. sprayed it down with alcohol in how it'll help. Doubtful though :(

I found one other post on a different forum that showed exactly the same issue, but all the replies on that one said fungus gnats and overwatering. I'm definitely not overwatering and my other peperomia (Frost) that got these really bad hasn't had them turn into gnats, they just stay as these little black pests on the back of the leaf.

could it be thrips? I've never had them, not sure how to visually identify them.

thanks!

Elena

@Elena Nuta yes I believe you do have thrips! they are such a bummer! BUT, do not fear. they are pretty easy to get rid of. Here's what I did and it was really successful:

1) isolate the plants on your naughty list to make sure the pests don't spread

2) give them a nice luke warm spray down in a sink or shower. with fragile leaves as seen on peperomia, i usually don't get really aggressive with the pressure.

3) get some neem oil spray (smells so terrible - like rotten peas) and coat the leaves weekly (should be doing this anyways for all of your plants)

boom! they will be gone! you could technically skip straight to the neem oil, but giving teh plants a good spray down cleans off any dust and junk left behind by the bugs.

i hope this works out for you! also, the rubbing alcohol should work. be careful with it though, because it isn't so great for the leaves.

Good luck!! :)

Andrea,
Thanks so much!

Not sure how to spray soap and rinse the string of turtles, maybe I'll have to repot it. I liked using the alcohol because it just evaporates. However, I sprayed alcohol on the peperomia Frost and a week later it wasn't any better

Elena

Hey Elena! It's SUPER tedious, but the best way is to get a paper towel and dampen it with the soap and water or with the neem oil and water and then to wipe each leaf front and back. That definitely will not work for the string of turtles though...too many little tiny leaves. I have a spray bottle that I have designated with a mixture of neem oil, water, and essential oils (to help mask the neem oil smell). I drench the plants in it weekly. If the leaves are large enough, I will do the paper towel thing and clean them one by one (it really is the best way).

I have 183 tropical plants and 180 of them require this wipedown treatment. The other three are kind of fuzzy so I just make sure to spray them and monitor them for pests.

(I am so envious that you have a string of turtles!!!)