Vegan Spiders?

[Feenix]

Problem: Very fast rotting condition.

Medium/grow method: Soil

Feed: and supplements used: None

water source: Tap

Strain/age: Triangle Dragon, 2 days

light used: Sun

Climate: 76f, 46% rh

Additional info:


Hello. The day after this Terrestrial Triangle dragon broke ground, this condition appeared.
Notice the web between the affected cotyledon and the true leaf that grew out in that condition.
The cup next to this had the same web with a small spider and the end edge of one cot was starting to brown. I pinched it off and got rid of the spider. This was last night and the pinched cotyledon has not deteriorated at all.
There are 93 known instances of spiders that eat plants (Wiki) and I think mine was one. This condition came on fast. The first thing I thought of was only weed killer destroys fast like this, but thinking of how spiders feed, it makes more sense. Finding the little bugger makes me guess she is the cause. I don't know if she was liquefying my plant to eat or to prepare it for offspring before laying eggs.

Please let me know if you had seen this before and know of its source other than my bug theory.

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[epenguin]

I would say a bug of some sort. Burn it brother. And if you don't have heaps of it, chuck the soil too. Don't take any chances. IMHO as always

eP.

 

[Feenix]

I would say a bug of some sort. Burn it brother. And if you don't have heaps of it, chuck the soil too. Don't take any chances. IMHO as always

eP.

Done, the rest, even the one starting to turn that I pinched the tip off, are fine. Thanks eP.

 

[VitaMan]

Nasty!

 

[Waira]

That's a big Feenix buddy! I really wish you had a pic of the spider,... are you sure it was one? Mites are part of the same family, Arachnids... I know about that jungle Jumper that eats a very specialized part of a plant, that's actually meant for an symbiotic ant species,... note that the other spiders species are eating plant derived materials (saps, exudates, pollen, seeds(?), etc..., in no cases have they been seen piercing and consuming from leaves by the usual method of their feeding,...and certainly not actual leaves, they don't have the mouth parts for that,.. without exception, spiders have chelicerae, a combo of fang/hypodermic needle,... mite mouth parts are modified for direct sap sucking though!
....the look of the dead tissues is really nasty, very wet fungal/bacterial,... I can't help wonder if the little spider (if that's what it was) was just in the wrong place, wrong time--? the way the tissues wasted back like that smacks of fungal./bacterial causes,.. even if a spider fed on it, no venom would do this, but a secondary infection from an open "wound" could happen,... mite damage can do this as well potentially,...
In any case, I'd hammer the surface with Azamax/neem, the dust some diatomaceous earth on there,... and scout at the micro level with a magnifier over the soil surface and plants to see if you can spot something,... there are so many mite species, you could get a more rare type, larger, less colony forming in nature,...

 

[Feenix]

That's a big Feenix buddy! I really wish you had a pic of the spider,... are you sure it was one? Mites are part of the same family, Arachnids... I know about that jungle Jumper that eats a very specialized part of a plant, that's actually meant for an symbiotic ant species,... note that the other spiders species are eating plant derived materials (saps, exudates, pollen, seeds(?), etc..., in no cases have they been seen piercing and consuming from leaves by the usual method of their feeding,...and certainly not actual leaves, they don't have the mouth parts for that,.. without exception, spiders have chelicerae, a combo of fang/hypodermic needle,... mite mouth parts are modified for direct sap sucking though!
....the look of the dead tissues is really nasty, very wet fungal/bacterial,... I can't help wonder if the little spider (if that's what it was) was just in the wrong place, wrong time--? the way the tissues wasted back like that smacks of fungal./bacterial causes,.. even if a spider fed on it, no venom would do this, but a secondary infection from an open "wound" could happen,... mite damage can do this as well potentially,...
In any case, I'd hammer the surface with Azamax/neem, the dust some diatomaceous earth on there,... and scout at the micro level with a magnifier over the soil surface and plants to see if you can spot something,... there are so many mite species, you could get a more rare type, larger, less colony forming in nature,...

Thanks Waira, That's why I put in so many question marks. The web in the second cup was the same as the one shown, Just as sparse. The very end of one cot had just turned brown when I nipped it off. Now, hours later, all are still fine.. I had looked at them all just a couple hours before and they were fine. Very fast.. I have two theories. The cup was filled with the last of a bag of Jiffy Mix. It may have been from it . Or, I had some cups for domes handy and grabbed one off the shelf without checking. It may have been in the cup. I'll recognize it if I see it again and will be looking.

Edit: I want to clarify that I don't think that nor want to infer that it came with the Jiffy mix. Only that it may have taken up residence in it. I grew some nice plants from that bag.

 

[Heavily Medicated]

You don't state your ventilation/circulation, I would make sure I was getting plenty of both, fans circulating within, and ventilation taking air out.

 

[Feenix]

You don't state your ventilation/circulation, I would make sure I was getting plenty of both, fans circulating within, and ventilation taking air out.

Thanks HM. What ever it was went in with the cups the day before. I had just done my pre start clean up from the last run a couple days before and the space was empty so I had sprayed behind the mylar that is just draped with a few pins in the field,.and all the surfaces. If there was one in my garage, there are others. I set some new sticky traps and will watch. I couldn't tell what the white flecks are that distorted from the flash. They could have been flecks of perlite for all I know, gathered for camouflage. I have seen it in little moving pills of lint that turned out to be Antlions. I didn't touch the plant, just burned it. Didn't want mites if they were there. I'm just going to write it off as ebola and use universal precautions.

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