whiteflies, mites or aphids treatments all the same
ive looked at your pic at the highest x i can without destorting the image too much. i would have to vote with the aphid camp on this one, (imo, definitely not mites or whiteflies) more of a threat to plants than to your animals. doesnt really matter whether they are whiteflies, aphids, or mites, imo the treatment is all the same. just use the soapy water routine, you dont need any fancy bug soap or anything like that, imo just plain germicidal dawn dish soap rinses clean and works fine, just fill a spray bottle up about 2/ 3 with warm water, add enough dish soap so that it will get extra sudsy when shaken vigorously, take the plant outside, spray it in its entirety while shaking the bottle often to maintain sudsy factor. like earlier posters have said, its important to get the underside of the leaves,and all of the little branch intersections, personally i would spray it several times throughout the day, and rinse with an appropriate hose spray setting. i wouldnt worry about turning the plant on its side, or upside down, because, imo, it should probably be replanted anyway, in fact, (if you want to minimize the chance of their return), just to be safe, i would probably dismantle the cage interior, and put the cage and all of the cage furniture you can in a scalding hot shower and disinfect the area and everything else with bleach. i realize that not all agree with my methods, but if youre interested, my method of replanting can be found in post #4 of this thread.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/little-mites-plants-45612/index2.html it has worked well for me in getting rid of infestations and i have not had a plant infestation since i started doing it to any plants that i buy. if you choose to replant, then ime, not all soils that claim to be sterile, are as sterile as they claim, (particularly organic ones that have been made from compost) so i would choose your soil carefully, or use a non soil like eco-earth. if you have soil, eventually you will end up with somesort of micro/macro organism in it (imo most cham plants should be replanted about once a year because of that). also, imo, plastic pots are less conducive to infestations than peat pots. if you decide not to replant, it wont hurt the plant to spray the soil as long as you rinse a little water through and fertilize afterwards. its sort of funny, when my mantis hatched out last spring, i did everything i could to come up with aphids, i even put an ad in craigslist, and called a local gardening club to find some, but alas, they had to settle for D. hydei. too bad you dont have a chinese ooth hatching about now! jmo
i trust in your opinions. I have removed that flower and have inspected the rest of the enclosure and found none others. I will keep an eye out over the next few days/weeks and treat with the soapy water method if i find any other.
