This doesn't look good...

[M_C]

Long story short....

I gave the Mother in Law a begonia plant last year that she failed to look after so it was brought back to me some TLC. It had an excellent summer after chopping it back & giving it a repot

It didn't care for the first frost of the year & got bought inside, chopped right back again. When I chopped it back I saw what looked like a fine silk web & leaf curl.... this is what I was expecting...



Couldn't find the bug though.

A couple of weeks later, the plant is starting to grow healthy again... & the silk web was back on one of the new leafs. I thought I'd sort her out on my days off...

Took a look today





Who wants to tell me the bad news

[Samwise Gamgee]

Either Spider-Man had moved in your house mate or you have guests in the pot

One good thing is that frost probably killed them off fella

[M_C]

Well, it ain't Spider Man, I'm fairly sure about that

...looks like the frost only culled them back & they are back to finish the job ... let's see how they like a blast of Neem

[M_C]

I forgot just how badly Neem stinks

...the bloody plant can stay outdoors until she smells less!

[joker_the_smoker]

i have yet to use that neem oil, does it smell that bad

[M_C]

i have yet to use that neem oil, does it smell that bad

Imagine going for a shit straight after Satan himself has just used the crapper...

...then imagine that he'd had about 16 dodgy pints of Guinness & a kebab with extra chili sauce that hasn't agreed with him...

...then imagine the smell twice as bad

[joker_the_smoker]

Imagine going for a shit straight after Satan himself has just used the crapper...

...then imagine that he'd had about 16 dodgy pints of Guinness & a kebab with extra chili sauce that hasn't agreed with him...

...then imagine the smell twice as bad

made me laugh out loud that mate. couldn't have put it better myself

[daddyO]

If that was me, I would buy mom a new begonia and get it outside to be composted/disposed of. It will be a moth of some description and the larvae will be feeding, it also means that the moth is happy and layed a second generation of eggs to feast on your begonia if thats a second lot of munching...

I had root weevils on my massive aloe plant, did everything, neem (stench of death) i even used an industrial insecticide...next year they still came back as the eggs were injected into the substrate of the plant...I took aa offspring and had to start again after 5 years of nurchering and growing it.

Sometimes its safer all round, especially if you have a 'grow' to just be rid of the problem. Something that cvomes back 2 seasons is fairly bedded in and very happy, otherwise it/they would move on. Try a cutting and being perenial it will grow again next spring, perhaps without the 'guests'...

[Strider]

My instinct would be get shot of it as well tbh :/ taking cuttings of Begonia is piss easy, just get an un-mauled leaf, score the veins lightly with a blade and pin it down onto a tray of cutting mix and keep its humidity up

[M_C]

If that was me, I would buy mom a new begonia and get it outside to be composted/disposed of. It will be a moth of some description and the larvae will be feeding, it also means that the moth is happy and layed a second generation of eggs to feast on your begonia if thats a second lot of munching...

I had root weevils on my massive aloe plant, did everything, neem (stench of death) i even used an industrial insecticide...next year they still came back as the eggs were injected into the substrate of the plant...I took aa offspring and had to start again after 5 years of nurchering and growing it.

Sometimes its safer all round, especially if you have a 'grow' to just be rid of the problem. Something that cvomes back 2 seasons is fairly bedded in and very happy, otherwise it/they would move on. Try a cutting and being perenial it will grow again next spring, perhaps without the 'guests'...

Nah.... more fun sorting out the problems & nursing her back to health mate

Of course, you are correct in what you say about dumping the plant, but the wife has been goading me about it being dead when I first started with it... and I hate admitting defeat