Late last night I found a giant spider wandering through my plants. There was no way to dislodge and/or whack him to death without damaging the plant he was crawling all up on, so (and I will regret this for the rest of my life!) I sprayed the crap out of him with some Off! spider killer. Then I misted all the plants with water to dilute the Off! Like I said, it was late last night, so I pretty much just went to bed afterwards, and then I was kind of in a hurry to get ready for work, so by the time I realized that ALL the plants that had gotten even a littled bit Off!ed were severely damaged. My mimosa seedlings were completedly wilted, my jade plant had fallen over a little, and this adorable mystery plant was all kinds of burned at the leaves. Unfortunately I couldn't call in sick for a plant emergency, so I'm sitting here at work beating myself up. Have I killed all my most precious plants? When I finally get home, are they going to be unsalvageable?
Well, I can't comment about the plants, but if you really have a problem with these beneficial predators in the future, I suggest using a vacuum cleaner instead of a chemical treatment.
All of my container plants are outdoors during the warm months and winter indoors. That said, I've noticed that many of my plants will have a "resident" spider when outdoors and sometimes they get brought indoors. Knock on wood...I generally do not have problems with pests as the spiders make quick work of them. The spiders do tend to stay put once they have found a home, so no worries. As for your plant damage, it is quite unfortunate. All you can hope for is that the damage is limited to the foliage that was sprayed, and did not go systemic. P.S. Nice to hear from someone in Kalamazoo. I'm just north of you, off of US 131.
I'm hoping the spider was a loner, as my primary beneficial predator is the Orkin Man (we suffer from heavy earwig hordes in our neighborhood). None of my plants get outside time anymore because they kept collapsing once they got brought back indoors after the summer. Mark, what kind of "uncommon" plants have you had success with? I know we live in a zone that does *not* easily support the kinds of plants I want to grow!
The trick to easily transitioning plants from outdoors to indoors is two-fold. One, I will keep them outdoors until overnight temperatures are around 50*F. With tropical and subtropical plants, this is enough to induce a semi-dormant state. When they are brought indoors, the warmer temperatures wake them up and I have not had any problems with environmental shock in nearly 20 years. Two, as temperatures begin to drop, full sun plants will be moved to the north side of the house, where they will receive full shade. This allows some time for them to acclimatize to less light before bringing them indoors, where there is even less light. Most of my plant collection is made up of African, Madagascar, and Australian succulents. Most of which are mail-ordered caudiciform and pachycaul trees...aka "Fat Plants". As a general rule, if I can find them at my local retail nursery, I have little interest in them. I also have Monkey Puzzle trees and Agathis trees from New Zealand and Australia. All are container plants that I've had to use bonsai techniques to control their size. You can see some of my plants in the "Caudiciform and Pachycaul Tree" forum. Because of our relatively wet, humid climate, succulents must be in a VERY loose, granular mix. Any organic material tends to put them at risk for rot as it keeps the roots too wet for too long, and encourages the growth of fungi. The trade off is that during those periods where it is hot and dry, I have to water almost daily. I have found myself using a lot of bonsai soil, Turface, and/or Flourite (an iron-rich, aquarium plant gravel). Slow-release, granular fertilizer (Osmocote) and liquid organic fertilizers and nutrients used for hydroponics work well. Mark
Now I know where Dilbert gets the idea for the cartoons about the office work place i.e. the computer screens, the company work and forums etc. As far as spraying is concerned, I hope your children are different than mine if you have children. If I had done it, I would have been hearing for weeks about the killing of the spider and not a single word about my dear damaged plants.
I'm with the children :)) I recycle unwanted spiders to the outdoors. We have a big hairy one called a huntsman. About inch and a half across. http://www.amonline.net.au/factSheets/huntsman_spiders.htm Great fly catcher but creeps me out so I have a large mouth jar and a firm sheet of cardboard to catch him/her, and outside. I have one (sure its the same one) with a missing leg that has been in a couple of times. This quote has happened to me "Huntsman spiders of many species sometimes enter houses. They are also notorious for entering cars, and being found hiding behind sun visors or running across the dashboard." amazing how rapidly a car can be pulled up and exit stage left. Liz
I also suffered through years of attempting to grow (unsuccessfully) tropical plants in northern New Hampshire. My very successful solution was to move south to North Carolina :-) I can actually plant some types of palms outside, and leave them there all winter, it's amazing! And I have oleander that is taller than I am! And the stronger, sunshine does wonders for me, too!
Turns out the spider poison was indeed systemic, and even the plants I cleaned off immediately ended up dying. Luckily, the aloe vera sprig I'd inherited from a plant belonging to my grandfather (who got it from my great great aunt) didn't get sprayed at all, even though it was right in the the thick of things. I can replace bog standard African violets and coffees, and maybe I'll miss my precious pink cryptanthus, but the aloe is from a plant probably older than my mother. It is irreplaceable.
