parts of my brug are all wrinkled up too...is it a virus? i have a whole lot of flower pods coming up all crinkled up and some look like a hook. if it has a virus, i hope it'll make really pretty unusual flowers, at least!!!
do i have a virus?
Looks like a nutrient deficiency. It's not Sunray is it? The leaf on the right that is deformed looks like insect damage while still a small leaf bud. Do you have aphids or mites? have you sprayed it with anything?
cala, the only bugs i've ever seen on my plants were grasshoppers and walking sticks, all of which i've caught and killed, i think. i've seen some kind of catapillar thing rolled up in my canna leaves, but i think they're gone. i dusted recently with sevin 5 dust...could that have done it? my hibiscus in front of the brug had some white bugs that looked like rice, and jim sprayed it with something that killed them...i don't think the spray hit the brugs though. i feed this particular garden with superbloom about every 10 days, so i don't see it possibly being nutrient deficient? everything in this garden grows like weeds. are aphids or mites really small? my eyes are bad...i would need to check again with my glasses!!
Don't kill the walking sticks, they are good bugs. Sevin could possibly have done it. They yellowing looks like iron deficiency, like the pH is too high.
oops! i coulda sworn i saw him eating my leaves! the yellowing...should i dilute some ironite and water? ph too high..what should it be? i think i have a tester for that, and the last time i checked it was around 6.5? i think.
the walking stick was eating some kind of bug on your plant. I love to see them, knowing they will take care of things for me.
Meiyu, I give mine Ironite, it keeps them nice and green. SunRay is the only one that I can't green up. 6.5 is a low pH, hmmmmm. We have acid soil, but our water has a lot of calcium/carbonate hardness. I have to use iron on petunias and things to keep them green. If you have marigolds any where near, don't get the iron on them. They don't like it.
cool...oh, so that's why my petunias' leaves aren't green anymore?? don't have any marigolds. i think all the plants in my beds did well last time i put ironite in the soil, maybe it's just time for it again...will try that, tonny, thanks!!
cala and tonny, i think i found the evil entities lurking in my garden. i saw those little white bugs that look like uncooked rice (mealy bugs?) on my mandevillas and my brugs today (how they got way up on my balcony, i do not know!), and i also spotted some litte tiny white webby looking spots on some of the brug leaves, and inside the part of the canna where the leaf meets the stalk, then noticed almost microscopic brown/black dots of moving living things inside...i could've been dirt, and my imagination was just going crazy, but what i definitely did see was a whole lotta these long, brown, centipede looking bugs with pinchers on their behind end, squirming away as i was fluffing up the soil around my plants...100's of them. peter called them 'earwigs' or something. there are no caterpillars or grasshoppers anywhere. i did see alot of black beatles around, if that matters. so, either of you know if any of these guys could be causing the weird deformity? it's happening to my plumerias beside the brugs, now! i have to get rid of them, it's creepy!!
i do wonder, though, if my big curly-q flower pods will produce some cool looking flowers??? brugs, anyway!! i don't want my plumerias to come out deformed!!!! help!!
if u really got earwigs, read on... http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2068.html
Mealybugs can cause the leaves to grow deformed too, if you have a bad infestation. Use alcohol in a little spray bottle, and spritz it right on them, dries them up and they die. The earwigs eat the new growth and make it deformed, the black beetles, especially if they are pretty good size are good bugs/ground beetles.http://www.uky.edu/Agriculture/Entomology/entfacts/fldcrops/ef104.htm
thank you!! i thinned out the cannas against the house and raked the mulch back to let sunlight in and dry it out a bit, as it's been very wet here lately. i'm glad to read that the black beetles are good bugs!! i have a lot of them. for those mealy bugs, i'm assuming straight rubbing alchohol? i'm not sharing my captain morgan!! hahaha!! thanks, you two, appreciate the help!! already got a few mealy bugs today, but i'm so sick, i'm trying to go back to bed.
Some of what she's describing sounds like it could possibly be scale too. But I'm not familiar with mealy bugs.
I thought of the little rice guys as aphids.....
gingerlily, what's scale? i clicked on the definition, but it doesn't describe the bug, at least not in a way my old and burnt out brain can understand...
crestedchik, i don't know what aphids or mealy bugs are, just that my friend pointed them out once when they were on my hibiscus, and they looked like pieces of uncooked rice...but my eyesight's shot too...
here's a pic of my deformed brug flower pods, though...should at least make interesting flowers, you think?
Meiyu,
Here is a link to scales. These are or can be aphids with hard shields and not easy to separate from the plant.
http://www.olympichort.com/mealybug_scale.html
Tonny
wow, they wrote that for young eyes, eh? i'm just now refocusing...hold on...okay, i can see again!! yeah, tonny, that's what was on my brugs, and i just found them on my mandevillas way up on the balcony...how the heck do they get up there??? i wrote down the name of that stuff just in case the stuff i sprayed didn't work..it's hard to tell yet. i keep forgetting to take my glasses out into the garden, so i can't see the bugs (or the directions for mixing solutions, or instructions for planting...no wonder my gardens look so bad, probably don't get anything guessed right!) thanks, tonny!
Maybe what I thought was early stage of scale development, is really mealy bugs. Need to study up on these guys I guess. Do scale start off white or are they always brown?
oopsie...if they're brown, that's not what i have. mine are white...really white when i kill them, a kinda grayish white sometimes? i don't think i've seen brown ones?
Here is a link with all kinds of bugs, good and bad.
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/insects.htm
hmmm...i don't think the little white/gray bugs are there? and i guess the earwigs don't appear to cause as much damage as i thought, so now i'm even more confused...haha!! i have those green stink bug looking things, and i definitely have a grub problem in my grass...i can see them moving across the lawn and growing. i guess i'll have to look into that lawn stuff they recommended. still not really sure what's causing my deformed brugs and empty flower pods...flowers are getting eaten before the bloom...ain't that a major drag!
wait!! just remembered i have a picture of them! this is when they ate all my hibiscus flower buds, the little um, uh...poopy pests!!!
the photo above is too small to see. save ur image to 460x480 by 75%, that is what Dave recommend to use.
ma vie...you're talking to me...meiyu...the one who doesn't know how to do anything? where's your link? hehe!! can't you see that little white bug enough to see the shape and it's kinda gray in the center, and has lots legs, i think...maybe like 8 legs? when i sprayed them, they dried up, and i flicked them off the plant like they were just dried up crusty flakes.
i know whom i talking too LOL! does ur digital camera come with a software? mine does, when i edit the image size, i save to 640x480 at 75%. not too familiar with those digital lingo. the photo is kinda hard to see and too dark too. can identify ur critters.
okay, lemme see if i can do it...i don't think it will, though, cuz if i make it bigger, it will just be fuzzy i think? brb, i'll see.
this is the best i can do, ma vie...will try to take another pic tomorrow...have a better camera now than i did then.
no hurry Meiyu.
i have a cheapo Toshiba, PDR-M61. i like it a lot. it came with its own software that is very easy to follow. it does not take a genius to learn it. takes nice clear shots too.
hey, i'm doing well to know how to get the pics from the camera to the computer!! this is something i have just learned about 2 weeks ago, even though i've had two cameras with this ability, for probably well over a year!! i don't like learning anything new that i don't have to...i have important things i need to think about, like what kind of candy bars did i hide from the kids, and where. at the moment, this is a problem, because i really want the baby ruth i hid last weekend...
u must be beginning to feel better now. u're back to normal Meiyu LOL!!!
hahaha...and if i don't get into bed soon, i'll start feeling sick again!! got stuck looking through the brug data base, drooling...i don't know which ones i have! i do know which ones i want!!! hahaha!! i can't remember the names of some of the ones brugie sent me, and i don't think some of them are in there, like she sent me something like strawberries and creme, or something like that? i can't remember, and i don't wanna go outside to look at the flags...hahaha!
u better get some rest then.
Calalily....what a great web site with so much good information. I have been sitting here way too long looking at all they have to offer...Thank you very much.
I like bugs(well, at least like to know what they are)so it's a little hobby of mine. I will usually go to a book to get an idea of what family they are in, then look on Google. I have that one bookmarked.
Meiyu, take a close up and we will see if we can identify it. There are several white fuzzy bugs that damage plants. Here is a link, look at the two in the upper right hand corner. If you point the mouse to the pic, a little caption comes up http://www.duke.edu/~tsf/natural.html
Here are more bugs http://www.duke.edu/~tsf/natural.html
i'm going to try to take more pictures. those white fuzz balls on the leafe with the sawflies looks very familiar, but i don't think i've ever seen that catepillar. and now i'm getting angry cuz they're eating my mandevilla buds!!! you know, i may have more than one problem out there, huh? well, i'm just glad i didn't look at those pictures before i went to sleep last night, or i wouldn't have had the lovely dreams of sipping coffee with robert downey, jr. in my lovely bug-free brug garden....
okay, cala...here's some better pics, i think
here's another one of the critters...
one more...
and, look at now what!?? my sambac jasmines are coming out deformed too??? maybe the deformity IS coming from the spray i used???
edit...i don't see any of those guys on the sambac or the star jasmines, although they are all side by side along the upper patio rails, if that helps? and only the sambac appears to have new deformed leaves; the mandevillas have destroyed flower pods. i'm going downstairs to check the brugs now. thank you for your help, cala! and do we have a new member here? friend of yours? hi there, antgranny!!!
This message was edited Monday, Sep 30th 1:09 PM
