When you bring them in.....

How do you make sure there are no scarey creatures in the soil when you bring them in? I have brought plants in before into a sunroom which has an exterior type door from it to the rest of my house so I didn't worry too much, but if bringing in to the dining room.... How do you know what's in there?

Carol

I am top dressing with worm castings to prevent white flies but that would not do anything for the soil. I have brought in pots with earthworms before and there is nothing worse than finding a dead worm on your floor - been there and done that! Yuck

Well one reason I am concerned is... I have dug in a pot that was outside and found a frog or toad... it was alive. Also I moved a pot the other day and there was a black widow under it. Yes, it was a bona fide black widow! I have seen earwigs in pots, ants... could be scorpions in them although I have not seen any of those around here in about 15 years. I just wonder... that is why I don't bring any into the Living part of our house.
Carol

My goodness you do have a menagerie in your containers. I wonder if you submerged the whole pot in a bucket of water for an hour or so if the critters would leave.

i have heard that before and i am sure some of them would. I live in the country by some woods

I'd like to know what the answer to this is also. Every year I end up with a number of frogs and toads in my house. (We live on 4 acres with two small lakes nearby.) I have way too many pots outside to try submerging them though I suppose that would do the trick if the plant could take the treatment. My kids usually enjoy chasing the frogs and toads through the house and putting them back outside for me (hopefully the frogs eat some of the other bugs that are in the plants:) ). I've heard of the rare scorpion in these parts, but thank goodness have never seen one. I found a black widow spider last week doing some clean up outside last week. Scared me, I admit. I wonder if there are some people who scratch some marathon into their soil when they bring their plants in?

Mostly we get spiders occasionally some earthworms. I have a compost barrel right outside one window of my sunroom. All earthworms go into it if they make it into the house. I have begun to bring things in. I prune the plants and clean off the pots before I bring things in so I don't get too much fauna with my flora. Many of my plants sit up on shelves or the deck railing so there isn't the insect colony problem for them so much. One year though my son brought in his large jade plant and it had an ant colony in it. we worked really hard to get the ants out before he entered it into the flower show. They wouldn't have gotten him extra points.
Martha