Help with Nep pest?

[byuboy29]

I just ordered a new N. sanguinea that arrived in somewhat poor condition. There was some mould on one of the pitcher buds and several of the leaves are malformed. Here are a few pictures:

I removed the affected pitcher bud and am trying to nurse the plant along. I've never had a pest problem before. Does this seem like scale or thripe? What advice do you have? Do you think I should contact the nursery to get a replacement?

Thanks for the help!

 

[dvg]

In your first pic, those brown bumps look like soft brown scale.

If you take a toothpick and try and rub those off, and they remove quite easily, then you probably have a scale infestation.

The second pic looks like thrip damage on the middle leaf. Thrips will chew shallow meandering grooves in new leaves.

The insects themselves can be blonde or black colored and are oblong football(american version)shaped slow moving awkward critters.

dvg

 

[icemansyr]

It could just be from the plant acclimating to the conditions at the grower's greenhouse. I've received some plants like that before with distorted leaves and that was because they weren't grown out very long before being shipped to customers. Don't be surprised if the new leaves that emerge from here on in are fine.

 

[nepguy]

It looks a little like thrip damage to me. But whatever it is, if you can still get it, Ortho Systematic Insecticide works great on nepenthes when used according to the label. However, I've also gotten great results from using Dr. Doom (available from sources on the internet). A couple of applications of that a week apart seems to cap just about anything, and it doesn't take much, especially in an enclosure. Dr. Doom is a strong pyrethrin compound and even eggs have no defense against it. As for mold, a little air circulation works wonders, but i've found that Bayer systematic fungicides work very well to make sure it doesn't come back, even in consistently muggy conditions.

 

[byuboy29]

Just wanted to say thanks. I ended up getting a Bayer systemic insecticide that did the trick. Now my plant is thriving on my windowsill at work.