Holly, your Hibiscus leaf looks exactly like the ones on my Red Hibiscus. Interesting the less than five feet away, the Pink Hibiscus shows no damage. A lot of our plants have been hard hit this summer. Yesterday was my first time finding some infestation in one of my houseplants. A nicely growing Spider Plant showed evidence of something munching on it earlier this week. Upon inspection yesterday I found little black dots on some of the leaves. I trimmed the leaves back and am now wondering what I might do next. I have never treated for any types of bugs and this is discouraging. Will Neem do the trick? I think a trip to the Hardware store today is on the agenda. Thanks for any ideas.
Ruby
bugs and diseases treating your plants?
Neen Oil is hard to use in the summer outside. If you treat it you need to keep it shaded and someone said that you shouldn't use it at all during times of high temps.
Thanks Holly. Any other suggestions on something I may use to deter whatever this black dot is? Thanks.
Ruby
Thanks everyone for their in put. I have discobered I must have japanese beetles...they have turned my hardy hibiscus' normally wide generous leaves into lacey leaves.
Here is my question:
I also usually have volumnes of coneflowers, and now I have cones but no petals...do you think the culprit is the dreaded "JB"? My hibiscus is easily 50 yards from the cone flowers with a house in between.
By the way this was the first May I did not spread that organic grumb killer nemotobes (which I cant remember the spelling sorry).
I have not seen any jbs on my coneflowers and have not seen them eat actual petals only the leaves, I do have a ton of grasshoppers here eating leaves of EVERYTHING. but have no idea what would eat the petals???? birds?
The distance between the hibiscus and coneflowers doesn't tell you anything about whether they have the same bug.
I grow Clara Curtis chrysanthemums, or try to, they never have petals.
I have a small patch of tall, orange/red Zinnias in my small front bed.
All I see are the red center cones--NO petals.....been wondering about that as well.
Yesterday-I noticed ants running up and down my Parsley pot--then down the sides of the soil in it.
Been wondering why the leaves look stressed....not fresh green and perky....
Picked up the pot--and there were ants everywhere.
Same with my pot of Cilantro and D-Lilies (the one from seed from Nancy).
They all sit on a small, round table--a bit crowded....
Can't use the Systemic Granules on the edibles, but did treat all the other pots.
Also--all my Brugs and my Gardenia (from JB) and my Brazilian Plume (it is OK so far..but...).
Went and got my Boric Acid and sprinkled that all under the Parsley pots.
Will check today if it made any dent in the ants all over. Figured, this would not get absorbed--being
outside the pot on the table. Your thoughts, please????
In years past--I have also had to deal with huge colonies of pussy ants inside the bottoms of my HB's.
They just come down the hangers and set up housekeeping. Especially if I hang any from my tree.
Will treat them all, as usual, before bringing them in.
Will have to uproot the 10" pot of my Parsley, shake off all the soil, spray all the ants dead--
hose off the roots and re-pot it in fresh soil. Not sure it will re-root,,,but it has to be done....
I like having fresh Parsley.
G.
It is really interesting to hear about the amount of different critters who seem to be doing a lot of damage to all our places this year. Could this too be associated some how with not having a very cold winter? Hmmm......Gita, I have never heard of a pussy ant, but have heard the term piss ant, as that was a close to a curse word as I ever heard my mother utter when growing up. hahaha
I suppose when looking at the big picture, I am very grateful that this conversation is not about the dreaded stink bug. Thankfully, even though I spot a dead one from time to time, they are no longer wreaking havoc here at my place the way they did for a couple of summers. Unless........some of the plant destruction some of are seeing turns out to be related to the life cycle of the stink bugs. Who knows? They may have a tendency to go in to hiding at a certain time in their lives and begin to do the damage that so many of us are seeing, and so many of us not being able to report that we are seeing any evidence much of other destruction beetles. Hmmmmm.......food for thought, for sure.
I am sure that one of our researchers in the group may be able to uncover if this thought is a possibility or not. Anyway.,,,,this seems to be a particulary bad years in terms of so many us having plant destruction like we have never experienced before. Here is hoping that whatever the cause, it soon cease and soon stop seeing plant destruction of our lovelies.
Ruby
New one, milkweed bug
they suck the juices from the seed head...if that's all they do I'm fine with that, I don't need anymore milkweed spreading but there is varied info and no one is really sure how much damage they do
Took a picture to show you all of my no-petals Zinnias. Must be some bug at night.
I have never seen anything on it in the daytime.
Also--looks like the Boric Acid powder did not do diddly! They are still scurrying around.
Sprayed the outside and bottoms of the pots with Home Defense. Dead! Now--the ones inside are trapped.
They do not cross a Home defense spray for quite a while. We will see....we will see...
Here are the Zinnias.....Maybe I should put a piece of stocking around a bud and see how that helps...
or a clear plastic cup cut open and wrapped around the bud???
that is so weird I never saw that before
Just read that earwigs(if you have a lot of them) eat petals , also June bugs and if you have finches, because they hold onto the petals while pulling out the seeds
Jen--I don't think they harm the milkweed plants at all. I have had many milkweed bugs, and still plenty of milkweed.
Gita- I'm thinking you can submerge the whole parsley pot in a large bucket of water and flood them out. An overnight soak won't hurt the parsley plants, do you think?
ants can survive in water I think it's a couple hours
I'll take a pic of what the seed pods look like now, they are all browning up
Sally--Good idea! Could I add somwthing to the bucket of water that will kill the ants--but not harm the parsley"?
Or me????
Wondering just WHAT kind of a table or shelf attracts ants--and what does not???/
The "table" they are on now is like the HUGE spools that electric cables come on.
The spool rotted out--but I spent about an hour removing all the center stays--so all I wanted was
the top round surface. Panted with outdoor paint.
I placed this on an OLD...OLD...small round metal table (that my Mom had on her back porch)
and put all the plant pots on top of it.
Could it be that the ants were already in the old wood surface of the table?????
I still lean to the drastic cleansing and re-potting Sally suggested.
Who says they won't just come back for a new nesting site???? In fresh new, rich soil?
I am at a loss as to WHERE to put my pots that ants will not colonize??????
They are in my kitchen....in my Pantry....under my big cutting board...etc...NOT making war with them!
ALL bugs and insects are in an exaggerated amount this summer....Blame it on the warm winter.
Gita
Ants are a nightmare for us. I feel your pain!
Be careful with boric acid. I put some on Christmas Cactus once that promptly died.
Jen, are you trying to collect seeds from the milkweed? I always cut off the seedheads as soon as blooming is over so that I can get a 2nd bloom later.
I have seen cones without petals on coneflowers, but never paid much attention to them. I assumed that they were just a few odd ones :-). Never thought something (bugs, birds?) might have eaten the petals. They were rare though, only a few here and there. Not sure what the cause is if yours are all like that :-(
Put a little soap in the water, it'll help drown the ants. I mean few drops of liquid soap. That won';t hurt the plant and you can rinse it off later.
Ants are incredibly annoying and colonize anywhere it seems. I have a colony in between the stand and bowl of my heavy concrete birdbath. Three feet off the ground, a 12 inch circle between concrete slabs.
Gita try Terro ant baits in the kitchen. ACE sells them.
Sally--I bought a pack of the liquid Terro Ant baits. WOW! $8!!!
Trying to set the first one up along the wall, behind the baker's rack by my kitchen door,
the bait flipped sideways and some/most? of the liquid spilled out on the floor. There goes $ 1.50!
Anyway--I found out the source of all the ants outside, and in my pots, on my little table.
I had one of those BIG spools that heavy electric cord comes on. I use these as small tables outside.
The last on I had was getting completely rotted out--but the top was still good and painted.
SO! I proceeded to remove the boards that make up the stays of these "spools". Long, heavy
work!
I have had this small, round metal table I have been using. The top is all rusted out full of holes.
So--I set the top of the spool on top of this metal table and put all my pots on top.
There was a gouged out, round area underneath this top--with kind of rotting wood.
You guessed it! The ants all made a colony in there.
When I decided to remove the wood top--Mamma Mia! There were ants and larva all over underneath.
No wonder they were crawling up and going in my pots!
With a can of Roach and Ant Spray in hand--I quickly dispelled them all.
Now my pots sit ONLY on the rusty metal table. This little table used to sit on my Mom's back porch.
I have NO idea how old it is....
U usually use it to put my small "Smoky Joe" grill on it if and when I grill something. Safe!
Here is thew bottom of the wood-spool I had on top. The ants' "condo" was inside this bottom layer.
Where all the open area is. You can also see a small part of the metal table on the right.
#1--the removed top
#2--the table as it was before I took it apart. (from May).
For now--no more ants. Still have to check the big Parsley pot...
Sorry that Terro is so pricey but I assure you it works well. I bet you will see ants eating up all the spilled bait and going into the clear tray. Sometimes they stay in the clear tray and die.
Sally--I was wondering if the ants that eat the Terro liquid die in the bait fixture--
or do they drink/eat it and then go die in their colonies?????
So far--i have only noticed this one area in my kitchen that has ants goinr up and down the wall.
Can't really see a "trail". Seems random.
BUT--I am sure they must come in from the non-existent, rotted out door sill at the base
of my unused kitchen side door.
It IS a damp area there.....as the rain just sheathes down the siding and hits the base of the door.
Maybe I should set one of these Terro traps outside under the door sill?
Time to go watch the Olympics.......MAN!!! The women's Volleyball was beyond impressive today!!!
My old love--the sport of Volleyball.
Here is a picture of my team from 1963--the year i got married.
Can you ID me?????
edited to add that "Whitey"--the coach we had back then (pictured) is still playing Volleyball at the Sr. center
where I started playing a couple of years ago. I stopped a couple of years ago. Various reasons....
"Whitey" is now 93--I think....Longevity rules in a sports minded body and soul.
Gita
This message was edited Jul 30, 2012 6:41 PM
Some seem to die in the bait tray. Other times I have seen them in it, but later found the tray empty. So guess , both ways.
I would yes put one anywhere near where you think they live.
um- 14? I am usually terrible at this. Cute picture though!!!
Nope!
#2
You are correct, Jen.
Lets see----I am all of 26 there....
Here's what the seed heads look like now on the milkweed
Gee Jen, pretty bad! If you plan on saving seeds then thats not looking good.
I was out admiring the scent on my scented tobacco- and realized many of the very large sticky leaves going up the stem were totally eaten down to the midrib. sheesh. Today I found a crop of young tobacco budworms up in the flowers; don;t know if they (their older siblings) could have done the other damage.
I wonder what my gardens will look like by Sept when we have the tour. Some of the plants are pretty eaten up and looking rough not to mention the black spots and wilt on some of them. Found a little pile of some type of bug under the Truly Tiny Banana. Ric got a picture of them will post it.
Saw these guys on my potted Parsley plant. What are they?
No wonder my Parsley plant has been looking so-so. many of the stems were completely
loose from the soil ansI could just pull them up.
I sent all 3 of them on their way to La--La Land----SQUISH!!!
Those are the cats of black swallowtail butterflies. Yes they are voracious. My best defense is to entertain them with big fennel plants.
But this year I decided to remove my woody overgrown fennel, and let it self seed elsewhere and fresh. Then my parsley all got eaten by voles underneath.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/showimage/13/
OH NO!!!!! You killed them!!!!!
Goodness Sally, you certainly have a serious vole problem!
I let my parsley go nuts because I wanted some swallowtail caterpillars, but no one wants to eat my parsley. :(
I'm seeing a ton of butterflies this year (especially around my Joe Pye Weed -- yipee!), but no caterpillars anywhere.
I never seem to see caterpillars in proportion to butterflies- ?? Some are hosted on trees etc as you may know, the cats are often not on the nectar plants. It's only been in the last couple weeks I found my first monarch cat- always late summer with them.
Watch out- today I found about 10 or so young stink bugs, in a variety of places in the garden! Tomato, asparagus, squash... I've hardly seen any al summer.
Oh, I haven't seen even one stink bug this year. What is your preferred method for stinkbug elimination?
These guys got Drowned in Bucket of Death (soapy water) don't know how many is practical to deal with that way. I have a couple soapy buckets in that garden at all times - squash bug mymphs have been trying to get ahead of me.
ssgardener, there is a whole thread or two on this forum on stink bugs
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1157265/
Don't think it was stink bugs that cleaned off my cute little 'sunset' oxalis over night but there might be some fat slugs sleeping it off today!
Sorry to hear those swallowtail cats got squished...seems this has been a hard season for butterflies as I have seen so few.
The locust sure are singing loud and long each day and night.
Poor sad Oxalis!
Three nights last week- a cicada has ended up by my porch light. In the morning when someone goes out, it buzzes and falls --on you!
Hey, Guys-----
You are making me feel like a murderer! To me they were just caterpillars eating my Parsley.
I need to learn more about caterpillars.....
Every year--I have Swallowtails and the yellow ones (?) flying around under my patio roof.
I have quite a collection of dead ones (NO! I did NOT kill them!!!)...they just died...
They seem to flutter until death under my Patio sky lights. Maybe they just don't understand that they cannot
fly away through these. Maybe also--they are done with all the egg-laying and this is their last stop.
From this--they fall to the ground on my Patio floor. If I can beat the ants to it (they quickly consume the body)
I pick them up and put them on a paper plate to dry out....
You all would be impressed with the asst bugs and moths and butterflies that I have in this HUGE Brandy Sniffer.
There are Beetles and Cicadas and weird bugs in there.....My best Moths I have in a box on a layer of tissues.
I have also found several dead Doves over the years that, probably, broke their necks trying to fly free and hit my sky lights.
If you have never picked up a dove--they have some weigh to them--I tell you...
Andrew Zimmern would have a good meal....
Sorry to sound "morbid'......
Back in my grad school days in NYC I lived in a 5 story walkup with two roommates, Tom and Marcia. One evening we decided to expose the brick wall in our little kitchen by removing the hideous fake brick contact paper applied over thick plaster.behind our stove and fridge. Not a small undertaking but we assembled some tools, put on the original cast recording from "Hair" and began trying to remove the contact paper and then just began crashing our hammers into the wall to break off chunks of plaster, laughing that our downstairs neighbors were out of town!
All three of us dislodged a big 2x3 foot piece and as it fell, thousands of roaches poured forth, scurrying everywhere. Hammers in hand we began smashing as many of them as we could while avoiding them crawling on us. As the dust settled and no more live ones could be seen, we noticed that large piece of plaster still in the middle of the floor. Ah Ha! Our hammers poised for one final death blow we simultaneously flipped over the piece.
There was one roach and it was totally white!
Halting our swings in midair, Tom said, "Shall we kill it?" Marcia said, "No, it's like The White Buffalo." So we put the piece of plaster back over it as it seemed in no hurry to scurry away. By the time of final cleanup, it had disappeared.
Coleup, that's quite a story! My Million Bells looks like your oxalis. Could it be snails? I haven't seen any stink bugs, so I doubt they were the culprit.
Gita, I witnessed a butterfly that had injured a wing and couldn't fly away. It looked so beautiful but it was sad how helpless it looked.