Enjablog

Ian and I have been having some problems lately. There have been little black bugs flying around our apartment and we tracked it down to our plethora of new plants. They fly around, mate, lay eggs in the dirt, repeat.

Per standard protocol, I used the internets to investigate the problem. From my research, it sounded like we had fungus gnats, so then I started an investigation to find a solution. There are all kinds of ways people have tried to resolve this… taking new dirt and baking it to kill anything that might be growing in it and then repotting all your plants; leaving out bowls of vinegar or wine to attract/drown the gnats; putting cut potatoes on the dirt for the gnats to lay eggs in and then throwing away the potatoes before the eggs can hatch (ew!).

We decided to follow Australia’s plan and introduce a non-native predator: Nematodes. They’re microscopic parasitic worms that attack garden pests… like fungus gnats.

Now, while I was in the midst of researching this, we also noticed a white cotton-y residue building up on Herb. I don’t actually have a picture of it on him because I was too grossed out by it. But I did do some research… And they’re mealybugs. The infestation was significant, but did not spread to other plants.

One of the solutions to mealybugs? Nematodes.

Our nematodes arrived about 2 weeks ago and, I’m happy to report, we noticed a significant improvement within the week! And Herb is looking like he might survive! I went through and cut off all the infected leaves that were beyond survival, leaving the healthiest leaf to continue the fight. He has one green leaf left with some mealy reside and a new, uninfected leaf sprouting. Now Ian’s just worried about what we’ll do with all these millions of nematodes…

In other news, went to Ian’s favorite bar/restaurant in the area with a some of my favorite people last night!
(Disclaimer: If you were not there, you may still be one of my favorite people. I mean, probably not, but I think I’m not supposed to say that. Hm, that wasn’t a very reassuring disclaimer. You may already have won one of my top positions as Friend!) It wasn’t even anything exciting or celebratory. We just hadn’t seen each other in a while and started making plans weeks in advance to find a date when we were all free. And it finally happened!