Help please! Brugmansia plagued by bugs!!

Hello to all you expert plant owners! :)

I've been visiting Dave's Garden for some time now. Although I've never posted anything, I now find myself begging for help!!

I finally got my very first brugmansia, "Cypress Gardens," which had been doing quite well up until a few days ago, but it's now being attacked by bugs! I'm hoping someone here might be able to ID them and/or tell me how to get rid of them quickly, since I don't want my poor plant to die!! I've been wanting a brugmansia for years and my husband bought this one for me for my birthday ... and now I'm afraid I might accidentally kill it. I've heard you can spray with certain types of plant oils, but I'm really not experienced enough to know what I ought to do or use...or even how to go about doing it.

I would greatly appreciate any knowledge and expertise you might be willing to lend! Thanks so much!!

This message was edited May 27, 2010 5:52 PM

This message was edited May 27, 2010 12:54 PM

Thanks for the advice! I'll definitely try spraying them with a hose. Hopefully that will get rid of them.... I'm a little concerned about the hard spray tearing up the leaves, but I guess the bugs are worse!

I was able to take a slightly more magnified view of the bugs (my camera won't focus properly on such an extremely small, close-up object), which are on at least 5 of the leaves now, and there are also little white things along with the bugs. Pretty awful.... The leaves at the base of the plant are slightly yellow, but not so much that I was overly worried about it. The plant seems fairly strong, otherwise.

Thanks again for the help so far!

they look a bit like aphids... but browner than the ones I usually see...
Is your plant inside or planted out.. I find that when they get out... they have fewer bugs,,as they are someone elses food.. the good bugs..
I always wonder about spraying them off... it seems like it's just displacing them to the plants in the understory.. to breed and develop there ... unseen... till they can once again accend to the juices of the brugs...en mass.. but it is cost effective.. and nothing's better from an environmental view... you didn't even kill the pest.. just relocated them...

GordonHawk, I could be wrong, but I don't think they're aphids - their bodies are too compact and they're brownish rather than green.

My plant is living in a large pot on my screened porch. I was leery of taking it outside at first since our nights are still kind of chilly and it's so young (not even 2 ft tall), but I took it outside today since we were over 90 F and the nights are supposed to be getting significantly warmer. I hope brugmansias like humidity! I also took a hose to it and got (I think!) most of the bugs off. I also wondered about just spraying them off, but I guess having them relocate isn't so bad. Hopefully now, since the plant's outside, the birds will take care of the pests?! I hope so.... I also hope those bugs don't find my plant again....

Thanks again for all the good advice. We'll see how things turn out....

This may sound strange, but I started spraying my brugs with Windex when I had aphids and spider mites. I do it at night to avoid any complication with sun and heat. Seems to kill most bugs instantly and the plants haven't suffered in the least from it. I throughly saturate the tops and bottoms of leaves and will repeat in a few days.

WINDEX... Yes.. I love windex for bugs... it's great for flies also.. nice and safe to spray in the kitchen.. and they are an easy target after a windex knock down.. and what could be safer to spray in the home

We have been having ant invasions and I use the Windex on them too. Kills them instantly and smells a heck of a lot better than bug spray.

I've used Windex to kill bugs indoors, but never on plants. Does it offer any residual protection?

Windex! Does it kill white flies? If there is a god, it does.