Subject kinda says it all. A friend found a bunch of round*, grayish-white things in the dirt (on the surface, not buried) of his philodendrom plant, and posted this photo asking what they are.
Someone suggested spider eggs; I’m thinking spider mite eggs (not sure if there’s a huge difference)? All I know is they seem freakin’ huge for a bug.
My friend’s probably going to dump the plant ASAP, although seems to me that if they really are eggs, the adults are already somewhere and probably his other houseplants are in jeopardy.
If the worst is true, does anyone have a good solution on how he can protect his other plants?
Actually in looking more closely, they’re not all round; kinda lumpy. To me that seems less eggy–all the photos of spider eggs are pretty spherical rather than misshapen like this.
Looks like a soil additive, perlite or polystyrene. It’s added to potting mixes to aid in aeration and water retention. It’s lightweight, and tends to migrate up to the surface with watering.
Ooh interesting point about the soil additives, thanks guys. The fact that many are very round does make me wonder about the perlite, though–so far I can’t find any images of foamy additives that have such round shapes. Also the color is quite gray rather than white. But I’ve posted the possibility to my friend and suggested he cut one open to see if it’s fluffy or, um, gross.
OTOH as I look at the clump of the things in the lower left corner, there are some narrow, slimy unidentified objects beneath/near them that are the same color, and they could indeed be emerging slugs or snails. Ew ew ew. This is in an NYC apartment, how the heck would he get such things? I’ve asked him if this is a new plant, and whether it’s indoors or on a terrace. If it’s outside I’d understand it better… seems like it’d be hard to miss a snail or a slug that’d produce all those eggs in the first place.
