Early morning lesson - catch 'em red handed

Should know this, do know this, but now I *really* know it.

I got out there earlier than usual this morning, took a walk through my little garden, coffee cup in hand, just to enjoy. And this is what I find.

1. Beans -- a few largish leaf holes. Turned over a leaf -- bam, there's the black fuzzy critter.
2. Cauliflower -- also large elongated holes -- and there's the big fat green thing curled up at the base, drowsy after another big meal.
3. Roses have been looking perfect. I peer closely just to observe a little red color starting to burst through a bud and yikes, I see a dozen or more tiny white critters on the top bud. A jet spray of water carefully aimed sends them packing, until I can figure out what else I need to do.

As always, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. For insects too!

Just thought I'd share. It's a basic lesson, but one I forgot.

aphids are the white things. most poisons dont work on em. i noticed those nasty black fuzzy dont become ANYTHING vats when home. They crawl back to their web tents at nite and can be torched only then to kill. The green one, would need to know which kind and size of green one ...

On the cauliflower, That is a cabbage worm. larva of the Cabbage white butterfly. The bean if it is a caterpiller several possibilities. Bt works wonders for all butterfly or moth larva.

we have black fuzzy worms that are tent webworms. Never become a moth or butterfly and they eat just abt everything. they also sting? bite? yuk. Highly resistant to poisons. When I get to a laptop will see if I can find one for you. We call em asps, but they arent quite the same asp as the World Famous Asp.

Tent caterpillars (http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef423.asp) and webworms (http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef423.asp) (https://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/cimg314.html) are both moth larva

Those arent black enough nor enough fur for what crawls our area.

Your description sounds some what like a woolly worm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrharctia_isabella http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19610401&id=hcEbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=oE4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=5498,56586 http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/c/common_woolly_bear_moth_caterpillar_poisoning/intro.htm

That one is an asp- though ours arent banded and are solid brownish. pure and simple asp. But not it. am online and abt to see if I can find one for you, I know I dont have pix, but down here in the south Texas area they are so common it is possible to have them indoors as well - and we detest them.

I had one 'a those fuzzy asps crawl under my spread-out-dress as I sat playing "jacks" on the porch, as a child. Bit me on the thigh.

I STILL feel the stinging pain!!!!

....be careful...

We have saddlebacks here, and they are extremely painful. Haven't ever seen an asp. Didn't recognize the picture of it. I just barely brushed against one, and it was red and angry for over a month.

That black fuzzy thing on the underside of a bean leaf didn't really look like a caterpillar at all, it was just a round fur ball about half the size of a dime. It sort of looked like a fuzzy fungus. But I suppose perhaps a very small caterpillar might have been curled into a circle to give that illusion. My technique was to remove the entire leaf and dispose of it.

The aphids have not returned since I blasted them with water. Looks like insecticidal soap can be helpful, and I have that, so will use it if I need to. Or, is it better to do a preventative spray rather than waiting?

I also sprayed some BT on the cauliflower, but a couple days later I picked my one and only head, so pulled the plant.

Thanks for all the info and suggestions.