Thrips Invasion! Quarantine!

 I am SUCH a slow learner. It has taken me over a year to internalize the well-publicized fact that thrips come into your house ON NEW PLANTS!!! Youŕe supposed to quarantine any new plants for some time (?) for this very reason. Not me. I just invite the thrips in to feast on all my other plants. Puuueeee.

So I´ve been fighting them off of the Crown of Thorns ever since it came in to the house. Sigh. So, first lesson: quarantine all new plants. Browsing Google suggests that quarantine should last anywhere from two to six weeks. Put them in a separate, plant free location. Yeah, if I lived in a mansion instead of a one-bedroom apartment with only two windows. The best I can do is to put them on my dining room table, which is in shade instead of full sun, and hope they can survive for the quarantine.

Then I have to decide IF the new plant is infested. I watched UCCE's Floriculture & Nursery Advisor, Jim Bethke,  on YouTube describe how to do it. Basically, you put a leaf or flower from the plant into la jar of ethenol alcohol, shake it up, pour the alcohol through a porous cloth, and viola, all creatures will show up. I have a new plant arriving in a few days, so I can try this.

Meanwhile, I have thrips on the Crown of Thorns which is 12 inches away from its neighbor. Time to move this guy to the dining room table which is four feet from the nearest plant. There are now three plants in quarantine. 

One is another new plant, the Mandevila Vine. I´m not sure what is going on with her except that every day more leaves turned brown and fell off so I just kept spraying her with Natria Insecticidal Soap. She has some new growth and plenty of leaves so I think Iĺl test her for thrips tomorrow with Mr. Bethkeś method. 

The other new plant, the Garden Flox, went into isolation from day one because she looked sick right out of the box. However, since she dies down in winter, maybe she´s really looking normal.

Oops, four plants! My newest plant, Fishbone Prayer Plant, looked perfectly healthy when she came, but nevertheless I moved her this morning to quarantine. Letś see if sheś still healthy in a couple weeks.

Meanwhile, I have to treat the Crown of Thorns. As I previously wrote, Natria Insecticidal Soap has been my go-to method for treating any pest. However, recently I´ve read information that says I should wash off the plant and/or cleank the leaves withi alcohol. So this morning I washed Crown of Thorns in alcohol before I put her into quarantine. Maybe tomorrow I´ll wash her in the shower and spray her with Natria.