DyingJuniper

CLIFF NOTES - I have disgusting maggot-like creatures in the soil of my juniper. There is slight webbing on the leaves along with white spots. The vegetation is brown along the limbs of the tree but at the ends of the growth it is still green.


I have had this juniper for about 2 years, I bought it as a very small, untrained tree. At the start growth was good but then i noticed webbing starting to form around the branches. Along with the webbing i noticed there are small white splotches on the leaves of my tree. From reading this site and others I determined they were probably something like spider mites. I regularly hosed down the tree to remove any webbing, hoping that the problem would disappear.

Slowly the branches of my tree started to die. It is strange to me how they are dying though. The foliage will be green at the ends, but the closer you get to the limb the more brown it gets. It's almost as if the tree is dying from the inside out.

I decided that this was not going to get any better on its own so I bought an insecticide claiming to kill 40+ pests and sprayed down the tree with it. After doing so I placed the tree in the sink and let it soak with water. When I went to retrieve the tree from the sink I noticed several VERY large white worms, almost like maggots crawling on the surface. When I looked closer I saw HUNDREDS of tinier, baby versions of this large maggot-like worm gasping for air. I'm not gonna lie, I was incredibly grossed out, these things were disgusting looking.

I decided to take immediate action and removed the plant from the soil. The soil was very black and it looked almost as if the roots had rotted. Whether this is from the insects eating parts and leaving the rest to rot, I don't know. The smell was also disgusting. After removing the plant I doused it in insecticide (which does not seem to affect these creatures in any way) and replanted it in fresh soil.

I hoped that I had eliminated my problem, but after inspecting the plant today I see that webbing has began to form again (after only two days), there are still white spots on the leaves (which i assume are eggs for these insects) and I saw several baby maggot-like worms crawling around the edges of the pot.

Now I am left with two branches and very little vegetation. I may have waited too long to seek help but I still want to save this plant. If any of you have any idea what these insects are and what I should do to get rid of them I would really appreciate it, thanks.

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