FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello! So I have a problem. I ordered a baby cephalotus from this site, and it came in its usual cup with its usual medium. Months later (today) I notice that in the cup, after it has turned green on top, theres WORMS! AND LITTLE MITES! They are white worms. Now I have looked around online, and learned to get rid of them, I must mix hydrogen peroxide with some regular water, then water the plant. (After starving it for a couple days) They said that will kill all the nasty bugs in the medium.
However, I was wondering if you guys have any advice to give me, or any better, safe ways to get rid of the worms and gnats in my poor cephalotus cup.
Thanks again guys! Have a great day
P.S. Where do they come from, and also how can I prevent them from attacking my other plants??

For gnats you could get predatory nematodes.

Hard to prevent fungus gnats from entering. Some say yellow sticky paper traps will help prevent them from laying in your medium.

Mosquito dunks are cheap and supposedly work too

More sundews, nature's gnat slayers.

A photo of the media and pests would be helpful. The "mites" are commonly harmless springtails.

Be careful with the H2O2. It can be damaging to plant cells if they are exposed to too much or for too long.

For fungus gnats, put a small dish of apple cider vinegar next to them. They will find it and drown themselves. I don't know why, but it's very effective. You can also use neem oil to help reduce and prevent them. Neem oil is effective against many pests so it may help with other bugs as well.

If you have mites, that's serious and usually requires a miticide. You should keep it separated from your other plants and probably treat them as well to be safe. Verify they are really mites first, though, because miticides are expensive.

I let fungus gnats be. They feed tiny plants such as dew and baby vfts, and I never had fungus gnat larvae damage my roots

xr280xr wrote:Be careful with the H2O2. It can be damaging to plant cells if they are exposed to too much or for too long.

For fungus gnats, put a small dish of apple cider vinegar next to them. They will find it and drown themselves. I don't know why, but it's very effective. You can also use neem oil to help reduce and prevent them. Neem oil is effective against many pests so it may help with other bugs as well.

If you have mites, that's serious and usually requires a miticide. You should keep it separated from your other plants and probably treat them as well to be safe. Verify they are really mites first, though, because miticides are expensive.

Thanks so much! This really helped I will use the apple cider vinegar method. I have some medium coming in the mail soon, so whah and how should I replant the cephalotus plants? Theres 2 or 3 in there and theyre medium babies. Also, what should I do about the white worm larvae in the medium??

Buy a package of "Mosquito dunks" at the garden center. Put one quarter of one in your watering can. This will kill the larvae in the soil and stop future generations. It is all natural and safe. Use sticky traps and manually kill the adults. Or stick a small chunk in the watering tray.

I'm the oddball in this situation, I deliberately keep them in my grow room, free food...

I'm a monster. I know.

ON A SIDE NOTE E E

Anyone ever consider diatomaceous earth?

Granted it doesn't work while wet, but a top dressing maybe?

Bhart90 wrote:
Anyone ever consider diatomaceous earth

I tried it in my frog terrarium but it didn't seem to help. I also used nematodes and they helped a little but not much.

Bhart90 wrote:Anyone ever consider diatomaceous earth?

I've used it on cacti and succulents against red spider mites. I wouldn't want to use it on CPs because the compost is much wetter than for cacti etc. I tend to use strategically positioned Pings to tackle fungus gnats and in any case have found them to be more of a problem for succulent seedlings than they are for CPs.

Just use insecticides if you are able to. Without them it's really an uphill battle.

I grow my cephs with a layer of silica sand covering the soil. It keeps the fungus gnats out and looks very nice