My favourite cyclamen has gotten an infestation of some sort of nasty, tiny, black fly. I spray it with a soap and alcohol solution and temporarily beat them back, and then I forget to follow up and they multiply again. They’re just an eyesore – I don’t see the plant suffering at all – and mostly on the underside of the leaves, rather than the blossoms, so it never feels particularly urgent.

For some reason those flies are not spreading, either. The pot with the other cyclamen is on the same windowsill, within arm’s reach, thus logically also within wings’ reach, but it doesn’t seem to tempt them at all.