Bought this plant from Trader Joe’s. The dots are stuck on the leaf but come off easily with a lint roller.
I’m just starting out with bigger leafy plants and was so excited to find this! Do I have to throw it out??
It has been living in my car for 2 days. So no watering.
Light has been from car windows.
by Andisaurus_rex
6 Comments
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Perhaps scale? I’m not very sure. Either way it might help to wipe the leaves down with an insecticidal brew (castille, neem, water, and microfiber cloth is what I use)
Houseplants from grocery stores, in my experience, are always kinda sketch. There’s a lot of pests that can hide in produce, which is in close proximity to the houseplant section. I nearly got wiped out from a stowaway thrip on the alocasia I bought from sprouts
Put them on a wet paper towel. If they turn into brown smears, it might be mouse droppings. It’s kinda hard to judge the size of the brown dots but to me they resemble mouse droppings the most.
Scale would be much more stuck to the leaf. And they are too irregular in size to be eggs, imho.
It’s poop, tiny poops.
It sort of looks like frass to me. If it is, it’s unlikely from a plant pests. And if it is, frass that size would come from an arthropod easily seen with the naked eye. Like a caterpillar or a spider.
Did you notice these flecks when you bought the plant or have they appeared since? Do you have a bug living in your car?
Above all, it would probably be best for that plant if you found a place inside for it to live inside or at least where you can insure temperatures not to rise above 95F, maybe away from the rest of your plants at least until you can rule out any possible plant pests. A lot of plants can get real sad, real fast in the heat of a car.
Looks like poop. Maybe you have a bug in your plant or on your ceiling.