Spider writes

"Tom" wrote in message
...
Hi, I have about 30 cacti and succulents indoors. One suddenly has lots of
little white things about 1mm across in the soil.

They look like eggs. I've just brought some plants inside, and did find a
beetle on my floor the other day..

Is there anything I should do? I love this plant and apart from this it's
doing really well.


Because you saw a beetle, I wondered about the Vine Weevil but, on Googling,
I note their eggs are brown. I don't know what 'your' eggs are, but just in
case the 'beetle' you saw was VWeevil, I would stock up on a proprietory VW
pesticide. Better safe than sorry.

I've not experienced vine weevil damage on either cacti or succulents,
but that may be because I have other things (primroses and cyclamen)
which they prefer. Unless you see vine weevil grubs or have a firm
identification, don't use VW pesticide. Apart from anything else, it's
too easy to build up pest resistance to pesticides when you use them too
freely in an enclosed environment. Pesticide resistance means it is
increasingly difficult to control red spider or whitefly in a greenhouse
environment.

As to the mystery eggs, the best advice I can give you is to isolate the
affected plant and repot it in clean compost. I know it's not the ideal
time of year, but repotting seems to me the lesser risk. I know that
someone suggested the 'eggs' were maybe fertiliser, but I wouldn't have said
that fertiliser granulues were *that* tiny .... the same much applies to
snail eggs.

II'd agree with the repotting advice, though I'd be inclined to delay a
while, and not repot until you have a suspicion of actual damage -
although repotting in a warm house is less of a problem than repotting
in a cold greenhouse.
--
Kay