I brought in the first wave of the most temp-sensitive plants over the past couple days... and am now wondering, what's that sound? I keep hearing little movement noises, IDK yet. A toad, anole... I hope! Can't find it yet.

I guess you did not do a "before bring in plants dance".

I soak them, shower them with the hose on high, nothing gets past my dance,

LOL! You're right, I just repotted about everything & don't want to wash plants or loose dirt out of the pots. I'm still hearing an occasional small rustle in the leaves...

I think anoles or toads are perfectly lovely creature. I would be freaked out if it was an insect or rodent though. Hope you find out what it is soon and can shoo it outside

I think I have figured out what's going on. You can see in this pic, there's space around the pots on this desk. There's a piece of paper in there toward the window with a bunch of succulent leaves. (Waiting for them to make roots before putting into pots.)



Last night, I noticed there's a bunch of dirt on the paper, falling from the hanging pot above it, probably because there's a worm in the pot. I think I've been hearing the bits of dirt falling onto the paper.

Glad that it wasn't anything more unsettling than that.

Not really related to the topic, but this made me think of my parent's resident frog. Apparently he lives in the dogs' water bowl outside. Dad says he knocks it out when he replaces the water, but it goes right back in when he's finished. Strangely, one of dogs that likes to "play" with toads, leaves him alone. I had a peek at it earlier, just sitting there with its eyes sticking out, looking all comfy. What a life!

Planto

Purple, reading your post reminds me of something that happened years ago. I was new to houseplants and had recently brought a pot of Swedish ivy. For a couple of nights DH and I kept hearing this scratching/munching noise in the bedroom. We turned the lights on and looked around, but couldn't locate the source. I looked at the plant, but didn't see anything unusual. Yet, it sounded so loud and so close. We were afraid that we had rodents in the bedroom walls, as the noise seemed to resonate. Well, a day or 2 later, I noticed that my swedish ivy wasn't as full. In fact, pieces had begun falling on the floor. I didn't have time to investigate, as I was running late for work and left. When I got back home, the plant was nearly totally defoiliated. Then I heard the munching noise and saw a piece of the plant drop to the floor. I took a closer look at the plant and found a couple of well hidden, fat tomato hornworms having a feast and killing my plant. DH got rid of the culprits. The plant looked terrible for quite a while, but eventually recovered. I'm glad that you're not seeing that kind of damage.

Wow, those must have been some big worms to hear them munching! *scared*

Planto

It was scary, as I'd never heard or experienced anything like that.

I bet! I would have been scared too.

Planto

I'm not sure if that's *all* I've heard or not. I guess ears interpreted dirt falling as rustling leaves because I expected the sound to be rustling leaves? Usually I dunk pots in a big bucket of water to evict possible soil dwellers, but that's so messy, drippy...

That frog story is cute, Planto!

Deborah - I wouldn't be surprised at all to find about any plant munching critter, and still haven't ruled out finding one. I've had squirrels, numerous caterpillars, and who knows what else munching on my plants this summer. A lot of the ones I've brought in so far didn't necessarily need to be rescued from cold yet, but if they get eaten anymore, there won't be anything left. I don't think my holiday cacti are any bigger by now than they were this spring - and I know some are smaller. So frustrating!

If I see any caterpillar poo, investigation is warranted! Last winter, in like January, after plants had been inside for a couple months, I found a couple caterpillars on holiday cacti. Taking plants outside is definitely an adventure!

Tiff,
If I knew anything about caring for a wild frog, I'd bring it home, but I know there's that old saying, leave the wild to the wild (or did I just make that up? )

I know for a fact that two of my plants have millipedes, but I don't think they're overly harmful and I haven't seen any ill effects with my plants. I have no idea where they came from, I can only assume they were there at purchase, as I have kept them inside all year. I've read millipede poo is better than earthworm poo, so maybe they'll get a little extra fertilizer here and there, haha!

Planto

Zen!