Question

poi dog nepenthes   QUESTION: Hello again.. I emailed you back on 10-3-13 regarding having little bugs in my plant, which is still an issuse. I have watched the video & have been treating with beyer advanced 3&1 and I have transplanted but the little bugs keep coming back after I don't treat for a month? My plant is also still very green and a few of my leaves have turned brown & broken..I am at a loss? Any advice would be great! Thank you & I have attached a picture.

ANSWER: When dealing with pests, it's not a one-time treatment.  Keep in mind that systemic insecticides last for only a month.  You have to keep treating the plant regularly or anytime you see an outbreak.  As long as you have plants, you will always have a potential problem with pests.

If you have other plants in your home, you should treat them as well since they could be the source of the pests.  While you may not see them there, they could be carriers. It may be that the soil for your Nepenthes is much more favorable.

So the only thing I can recommend is to continue treating the plant.  Even for us, we have to treat our tropical plants on a specific schedule. If we don't, we risk pests reestablishing in the greenhouses.  

On another note, when submitting a question, make sure to provide all of the information requested on the submission page, unless you're submitting a follow-up within the same thread.  We don't have ready access to all questions, and sometimes Jeff and I will trade off on answering questions.  The reason why I request this is because I don't know what pests you're dealing with and whether or not the brown and broken leaves are related to the pests.  I also noticed another problem with your plant, possible insufficient lighting.  However, since I don't know who you're growing your plant, I can't recommend any changes to what you're doing.  It may be possible that insufficient lighting is also weakening the plant, making it more prone to pests.  That's just a thought.  If you want more assistance with this issue, please write back as a follow-up.  For now, however, continue treating your plant.  That's the only method that will remove pests.

Good growing!
Jacob Farin

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poi dog nepenthes   QUESTION: I apoligze MR.Farin for not leaving all the corrent info. I bought the poi dog last year at the portland Saturday  market and I do live here in oregon. when I took the picture I had to close my front curtain to get a good picture. The little bugs I am refering to are little clear or silver bugs that I will see in the dirt. I do water once a week in the summer but in the winter only about every other but it depends. And I have attached a better picture regarding why my plant is so green and my brown broken leaves. Also the dirt I am using is  what you guys recomended be used. Which got from a local garden center. Thank you so much for your time!!

Answer
Thank you for submitting the additional info.  The leaf damage isn't related to pests.  Instead, it looks like it got torn by something other than pests.  Houseplants will sometimes experience a torn leaf when their moved around, despite our best efforts to be careful.  

Now that we're heading towards summer and the chance for sunnier skies increases, make sure to give your plant several hours of direct sunlight.  The leaves look too green.  There should be a touch of red or yellow, which indicates its getting sufficient sunlight.

When you say "dirt," what do you mean exactly?  You mentioned that you followed what we recommended to use.  Can you let me know specifically what we said?  I'm asking this because I want to make sure that there's no mistaken about the ingredients you used.