Help please all my bushes are dying : (

Ok, so here's the situation; I was away from home for 5 months working. came back about 10 days ago to find that 5 of this bushes are dead and the disease (or whatever is killing them) is spreading to the rest of the bushes of the same kind (about 10, 12 more). This disease, however does not seem to be affecting other plants or trees in the garden.
A few facts.
Last time I was home i started a compost pile and the disease seems to be spreading out from that area. The compost pile has some grass clippings, vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, paper products, horse manure and some random organic materials that I gathered when cleaning the garden.
I don't know what this bush is called but it seems to have some sort of bugs on the leaves. the interesting thing is that it seems to be spreading out and jumping bushes of different species (gardenia, pine tree, dogwood tree, maple tree, fig tree, etc..)

Anybody has an idea what am I dealing with ??
What could have caused this ??

I'll post a few pictures....

Is there anything I can do to save the rest of the bushes??
All of your help is greatly appreciated !!!!

[IMG]http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa62/sevseasail/Vegetables/Backyard003.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa62/sevseasail/Vegetables/Backyard002.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa62/sevseasail/Vegetables/Backyard001.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa62/sevseasail/Vegetables/Backyard004.jpg[/IMG]

Willy.

A close up of the leaves...

Another..

This kind of looks like insect damage. Can we see a close-up of the leaves and any critters?

Thank you for your reply !!!
Let me take another close up picture and I'll put it up.
I have not noticed any critters moving, just all those tiny spots on the leaves...

Willy

Here's a close up of a leaf

One more on an already dead one..

I did find several of these guys lurking around...

And also some of these...

Hi Willy. I found some info relevant to your area that may be of use to you.Whatever is after your garden is probably a result of heat and drought. The first things that come to mind are spider mites, thrips, whiteflies and scale. I do know that some insects also transmit viral/fungal infections.

http://apps.caes.uga.edu/urbanag/GCLP/StudyGuide/chapter19.pdf

http://www.gainvasives.org/pubs/insectflyer.pdf

http://www.ehow.com/about_6597905_effect-water-stress-plants.html

This site links damage images with the insect that causes it.

http://www.weedpro.com/Education/edu_photo.php?sec=3

Your first new picture is classic whitefly damage/infestation. They love my hibiscus, gardenias and citrus.

Yes, I agree with Moon. Whiteflies. When you shake the branches, you'll be surrounded by them.

Thanks Moon !!!
I gave it a quick look over on the links you provided. (still have to do a lot of reading there...)
The last link seems to have a picture of what I have, however, for some reason I cannot navigate that page.
I'll look into the Aphids.....

I do not think drought has much to do with it as the rains have been pretty good around here for what my wife told me during my absence and since i've been back.

how do you fight the whitefly? Is there anything I can do in my case or is it too advanced?

Thank you!!!

Here is some info on control. You are very welcome...never too late to try.

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7401.html

http://www.bugspray.com/article/whiteflies.html

http://www.gardenguides.com/video-57807-control-whiteflies-outdoor-plants.html

Awesome !!!!
Thank you guys !!! you rock !!!

I've been to the Home Depot and now I'm armed with the solution. (Insect, disease and Mite control spray)
The guy at the store saw me with a few leaves that I took to the store just in case and from 20 Ft away when he first saw me, he knew what it was. He said it was SCALE INSECTS, however the remedy is also good for the whiteflies and the aphidis, so I'm waiting for the sun to go down so I can spray those suckers (literally)....

Thank you sooo much again. You guys have so much knowledge; and the awesome thing is: you're willing to share with the rest of us..

THANK YOU !!!!

Willy, I would try cutting away any dead wood and burning it before you treat. That way you can keep a better watch on the survivors and make sure the treatment is working.

Glad to be of help. Moon

Yup...big NO NO...best you rake and burn them. Scale can survive on the dropped leaves. Sorry, I know how hard it is to destroy future compost...grin

Whiteflies don't jump, do they?

I think Willy meant that the white flies/scale skipped over the gardenia and went to the next shrub in line...not that the flies took a leap....grin

LOL! Funny, I can usually discern accents better than that.

I live to serve....LOL I did get an interesting visual of tiny white flies perched on the leaves preparing to leap to the next plant....grin

LOL! I had that one, too.

I got this whole cartoon running...tiny acrobats and parachutes...LOL something akin to a flea circus.

With tiny voices saying woohoo! and yeah!

I love having grown up in the time of Tex Avery and Looney-toons. GRIN

LOL!

You can make up your own mixture to spray on your leaves to help kill off the sap sucking insects / flies, I don't really think they look like Scale insects as they normally bury or stick like glue to the underside of the foliage, they are also very, very difficult to move, the bugs / flies I see in the pictures are more like sap eating bugs like Black fly /Greenfly etc, But naturally I could be wrong.
There are 2 mixture that come to Min's for these bugs, one is a Garlic wash the other is a dish liquid soap wash, you make them yourself in your kitchen and cost only pennies.

The Garlic wash is, 1 whole Garlic bulb, place in a pan with pint of water and bring to the boil, leave to simmer for maybe 10-15 Min's and let it go cold, dilute this mixture about 6 to 1 with cold water, place the mixture into large juice plastic bottle and sue in a spray /mist bottle and spray this all over your shrubs, the bugs hate the garlic and also it prevents more bugs landing on the foliage, you will require to repeat this spraying every week, once your shrubs are bug free, you should see new foliage starting to sprout before the season has ended, maybe you will have to protect the shrubs with a fleece blanket IF you get frost on the shrub's as new tender leaves wont be able to survive frost on them.

Dish washing up wash, mix i tablespoon of washing up liquid soar with 2 gallons of water in your watering can etc, then bottle as for the garlic, spray the same as garlic weekly, there is a fat /oil in the washing up soap and this sticks to the bugs, it prevents them from breathing (dead) this like the garlic, will help wash lots of the bugs off the foliage, IF this don't work, then you can move onto chemicals bought at the store, these washes can be used on all plants by the way and are harmless to people and environment. whichever way you go, wish you luck and happy gardening, WeeNel,

Thanks WeeNel !!

I was trying to go the natural route but the guy at the store told me it was way to advanced and if I wanted a chance at saving the bushes I had to go the chemical way... so I did, used a Bayer product; besides I just started a new job and have not much time to be applying the products once a week. I still cannot tell the difference. We'll see what happens ..

Thank you for the info!!!

Willy.