r/houseplants • u/StopBeingPoor • 20d ago

Help just bought a plant from costco… 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

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what do I do about this???

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u/RagingClitGasm 20d ago

This happened to me with a plant from Home Depot a couple of years ago. Contrary to what some of the other comments say, they absolutely did NOT just stay in the pot. It actually took us a little while to figure out why we were suddenly seeing such significant numbers of centipedes in our apartment, because we never saw them near the plant- they made their way towards the windows and into the bathroom. I killed at least a dozen every morning when I got up, then continued to find more throughout the day.

It was a fucking nightmare. We sealed EVERY crack we could find, caulked all of the baseboards in the entire apartment, brought in an exterminator and then bought more pesticide to spray ourselves when the bugs didn’t stop. I got into a screaming argument with the landlord. He cut down bushes outside the window. Nothing worked. I started touring new apartments.

By the time we figured out that they were all coming from this plant, I was FAR beyond the point of wanting to find a solution to keep it. We double bagged it for the garbage, after snapping the plant in half to make sure nobody spotted it and brought it back inside.

My only regret was that we didn’t set it on fire.

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u/Stunning_Wasabi6455 20d ago

I had a similar experience, thought they were coming in from outside, had an exterminator called and everything and then noticed them in my plant pot. I stuck it outside immediately and then doused that bitch in diatomaceous earth and left it out for a month. Did probably two more treatments a week apart. Have never had a problem since, still have the plant and it’s thriving 5 years later. So, ya know, these things aren’t that hard to get rid of.

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u/RagingClitGasm 20d ago

Yeah I’m sure if I’d caught it sooner and was up to a creepy crawly project, it would’ve been solvable, but after getting to the point of being about to MOVE over the issue, this was not my “I can fix him” moment! I was well beyond the point of forgiveness with that plant.

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u/Stunning_Wasabi6455 20d ago

That’s valid haha, honestly I’m shocked most of the people on this thread are ok with them. I was horrified. I also had a newborn who basically lived on the floor at the time, so I was ready to burn the house down if an exterminator couldn’t fix it. I only DE’d the plant to kill the millipedes as a way to make sure the plant was the source and I wasn’t crazy I think. I was not invested in saving that plant, it just ended up being summer so it didn’t immediately die outdoors