Knowledgebase

Whats happening to my plants? #941611

Asked August 05, 2026, 12:58 PM EDT

I have all indoor, potter plants and they've been slowly dying. I have noticed these thinner spots on leaves and tiny black dots. I have also noticed webbing and tiny brown dots, particularly on my blackberry plant. The plants mainly affected are blackberry plant, mint, and catnip. Please help! Thank you!

Baltimore City County Maryland

Expert Response

It's quite uncommon to keep some of those plants indoors long-term, unless you are having to keep them inside temporarily until they can be planted outside soon. Blackberry and catnip in particular generally won't get the conditions they need to thrive while indoors (especially the blackberry, which needs lots of space, direct sun, and pollinator visits when it blooms). Cold-hardy plants will need a winter "rest" or dormancy period in order to grow normally, which they won't get indoors. Overall, plants that are stressed by their growing conditions are more vulnerable to pest and disease problems.

The plant in the first photo has what appears to be thrips feeding damage and frass (insect poop, a feature often visible with thrips activity). You can use the pictures and information on our Thrips in Home Gardens page to look for them to confirm their presence. Check the leaf undersides, as that's where they usually live. Management options are included at the bottom of the page, which may entail spraying the plant with a low-toxicity insecticide several times until the population is reduced. Make sure any product you select for this is labeled for indoor use (many pesticides are not) and for edible plants, if you intended to harvest from any of the treated plants.

The plant in the second photo (the catmint?) appears to have mites, which like thrips, can be quite common among indoor and outdoor plant pests. You have similar options for controlling them as with the thrips, and you can learn more on our Mites in Home Gardens page.

The blackberry leaves are hard to diagnose from the photo. While the white residue on leaves superficially resembles powdery mildew, the buildup of white residue in the junction of the leaf stems looks different. If this plant were outside, we'd guess it was leafhopper wax, but those insects aren't found on plants indoors. The brown spotting might be a fungal or bacterial infection, or just scorch if the roots got too dry at some point. We can't see it clearly enough to narrow that down. In either case, you have limited options for treating an infection (if that's what it is) while the plant is indoors, as very few fungicide sprays are labeled for indoor use (and among them, few if any of those would work well for a bacterial leaf spot). We can't see how the plant looks overall to judge if the symptoms look extensive enough to be concerning, but so far, they don't look like intervention is needed.

Miri

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