Remember this lovely euphorbia from Wednesday? It’s relatively new to me. I acquired it when I was getting the plants for my container lecture.
I have never been particularly attracted to this type of plant but the coloring was so pretty on this one that I succumbed. This is euphorbia trigona rubra.
About a week ago I was getting dressed and I happened to glance over to the window where this is. The sun was coming in just right. And I thought that I saw something odd on the “thorns.” So I resolved to check it out when I watered later that day.
I am a huge believer in trying to water and tend to your house plants in as much natural light as you can. Here in the northern hemisphere, that’s getting harder to do as we approach the winter solstice. I try to pick a weekend day, mid-afternoon, when the light is good. I discover a lot of things that way.
In this case, I discovered these: whitefly eggs and larvae. So the plant is now isolated and I will have to treat it with something organic to remove the eggs.
And the quote at the top of this post? It’s one of my favorites from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Dogberry, the ineffective sheriff, is the one who speaks it, about trying to catch miscreants.
The whole thing is “be ever vigitant, I beseech you.” Of course he means vigilant. And if we are to outsmart house plant pests, that’s what we will need to be!
Gardendaze 
Oh no! Those look like scale! It would be better if they are whitefly eggs, just because whitefly are easier to get rid of. Scale are more resilient and have a sneaky way of coming back.
Oh, I wish that they were scale. I have scale all over my citrus of course. I really don’t mind. They’re slow moving and don’t generally move from plant to plant unless they fall onto another plant. Nope. These were whitefly. By the time I dug out my essential oil houseplant spray, one actually had wings and was able to fly off when I sprayed. With any luck, it didn’t have eggs in it.
Karla