thinking very hard about how you might give a grass pokemon (especially the ROUND GRASS BABIES) periodic insecticidal soap baths to get rid of thrips and other obnoxious little suckers
"never get Miracle-Gro for your babies, I bought some of their soil once for my Smoliv's playpen and it was FULL of fungus gnats. I threw it out right away but the poor dear was SO stressed by the whole ordeal"
"unfortunately fungus gnats can happen no matter which brand you get. I personally sterilize all of my soil by baking it in the oven first, 2-3 hours at 180 degrees fahrenheit. it stinks up my kitchen but my young sunkerns have delicate constitutions and it helps a lot with keeping pests out of the house and out of their leaves"
"y'all bake your soil?? I just microwave it lol"
"DON'T MICROWAVE YOUR SOIL, sometimes soil has stray metal bits in it and you risk causing a fire! pour some boiling water over it instead"
"sterilizing soil is an old wives' tale. grass pokemon actually need the beneficial bacteria found in soil for their overall health. it's important for everything from their skin to their immune system. when you sterilize soil you're killing off the good as well as the bad"
"okay but what do we do about fungus gnats then"