Eggs in soil of indoor peace lily-what next?

Hi all,
I have my very first houseplants in my bedroom. I just purchased a Peace Lily from Wilkinson's. When I got home and potted it up, I noticed as I pulled it out of it's plastic pot that there were lots of what appeared to be tiny white eggs in the soil around the roots. There was also a small amount of root rot (roots that had gone squishy and brown), but a lot of healthy roots also.

Initially I knocked off much of the soil and visible eggs (and rotted root). All I had to hand was pyrethrins spray, so I sprayed the remaining soil around the root ball before potting up into a new ceramic pot (with drainage hole). I sprayed the inside of the pot first also.

I then placed it into the bath so that I could spray the leaves thoroughly with the shower head as I had noticed one small white bug (possibly mealy bug), and watered the soil in. I then thoroughly sprayed the whole plant with the pyrethrins to kill any remaining mealy bugs.

So my questions are:
1) What kind of bug could the eggs belong to?
2) What do I do about it?

Having done a bit of googling there is frequent talk of fungus gnats that lay their eggs in the surface of the soil. However, the eggs appeared to be quite deep in the soil as I only saw them when I pulled the whole plant out for re-potting and saw them all around the roots and such.

Unfortunately I have been unable to quarantine the plant away from my other houseplants that I have just bought, as my mother will only let me keep them in my room, so I want to act quickly before whatever it is hatches and spreads!

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Jen. If it was fungus gnats you wouldn't see the eggs and they live amongst the roots as well as the top soil. The gnats themselves are tiny, very annoying, but don't bite. I've had a battle with them for the last year in my houseplants and hopefully recently have solved the problem.

They could be eggs from some sort of weevil but I can't be sure. I think you have done just about everything possible assuming you washed as much of the soil off the roots as possible and re-planted in new soil/compost.

 

Thanks Sheal .
Ok well that's a relief that it's possibly not the gnats then!
Ah, I wasn't actually able to wash the soil (my mother wouldn't let me wash it off in the bath or the garden-she claimed I should never disturb the roots, but I think really she was just concerned about the mess and water use!). I simply knocked off what I could without being too rough with the roots. I must have gotten most of them, but it's possible there may still be some eggs remaining inside the soil clinging to the root ball.

So, is there any kind of soil drench I should use? (Hydrogen peroxide? Neem oil? -I've seen these suggested elsewhere for other bugs, but don't know if either would be effective in this instance? I know it's difficult to answer considering we only have "tiny white eggs in the soil" to go by!)

Thanks

 

To be honest I've been lucky and very rarely have problems with bugs, either with inside plants or outside. I've not had to use any prepared 'chemicals' on anything, so I can't help you with that, sorry.

The fact that you have not washed the roots off may mean you still have the bugs/eggs in place. Disturbing the roots will do very little harm, but the bugs will! My houseplants have been re-potted with new multi-purpose compost four times in the last year and are still alive, the gnats were within the compost itself, which is B & Q's Verve, unfortunately they cut back on their screening processes last year.

Other than that, take the plant back to where you bought it and make a complaint.

 

Are you sure these were not slow release fertiliser granules?

 

I hadn't given that idea a thought Palustris, but Jen has mentioned root damage.

 

Could the rotted roots be down to over-watering? Wilkos can be a little eager with watering sometimes.

 

They were too small to be fertilizer granules. They were in little clusters and are teeny tiny, round, white balls, that look like some kind of insect egg. Visible to the naked eye, but tiny dots, perhaps roughly the size of a full stop or perhaps a tad bigger?
If we can identify them, then there should be some way to kill them or any larvae that may emerge in the soil.

Yes I expect the root rot is coincidental.

 

Snails lay eggs in clusters, they are usually white. or at least the ones I have caught have been.

 

Mollusc eggs are bigger than the size described.
The water holding stuff is small and white. Proper name escapes me at present.

 

If you mean that swell gel stuff Pal?
Yes its small and white until it gets wet.

 

Bad day for remembering things yesterday, well I think it was yesterday.

 

Wilkos can be a little eager with watering sometimes.

It`s either famine or feast with them..

 

Hmm it wasn't crystalline in appearance, but let's hope it was something like that! Suppose I'll just have to wait and see if the plant dies and/or little beings emerge!

 

Well unfortunately the peace lily isn't looking too happy. There's a couple of larger leaves that have turned yellow, a browned flower and a couple of leaves with dark brown/black patches. I removed the largest yellow leaf and the stem was rotten with a strong smell. :(. Is the whole plant just going to slowly die and if so should I take it back and get a refund? Or will the rot be limited to a few stems and not affect the healthy parts of the plant? The second pic shows where I cut back the large yellow leaf, as you can see there's some rot in the base.