Thousands of insects were reported in the control planter while the adjacent KPCB planter remained practically insect-free.

When the experiment was inspected after the five-day unattended period, the control planter was described as completely infested, with insects observed on the plants, in the growing medium, and around the inner planter walls. Despite being directly beside the control, the KPCB planter was described as practically free of insects.

This case documents a visual side-by-side observation rather than a quantified entomological study. The source describes “thousands” of insects in the control planter and the KPCB planter as “practically free of insects,” but no formal insect counts, species identification, sampling method, replication, or statistical analysis are supplied. The experiment also included multiple plant species within each planter, so individual crop-specific responses cannot be separated from the supplied information. Both planters were reportedly left without water or care for five days during the Hurricane Irma evacuation. The original case concludes that KPCB improves plant disease resistance, but no plant disease, pathogen, infection rate, lesion count, disease-severity score, or disease resistance measurement is provided. For that reason, this page presents the result strictly as an insect presence observation and does not make a disease resistance claim.

Why this observation is notable: The treated and control planters were located directly beside one another under the same indoor setup and experienced the same five-day period without watering or care. After that period, the source reports a substantial visual contrast in insect presence between the two planters, with the control heavily infested and the KPCB planter remaining practically insect-free.