Spotted some aphids on the Insig pink.......
But there's a ladybug larva ready to munch them up for me :o) I'm sick and tired of spraying and battling the bugs. It's about time Mother Nature chipped and helped.
The good and the bad
Here's the ladybug dragon
A baby dragon! and he's hungry!
Another nasty critter
And these dang thangs! They get into the top leaves to hide.
Here's a good guy :)
And another good guy. This is a hover fly... they eat thrips. I have plenty of food for them :)
How do you collect all them critters? I am almost bug free, up until now! Probably just changed my luck!
yeahh but I have godzilla grasshoppers raised on steriods the only thing that seems to help is to feed them to my little boys spider----Hairy :)
I have a ton of those hover thingies...
Didn't know what they were!
And they do hang out by a bunch of brugs.....
YIKES! DO I HAVE THRIPES??????
What do they look like?
I am fighting a losing battle with spider mites now....does one have to have a regular spray routine with these brugs?
This is scary, lol. I've got my first new plants going and was worring about the water and food. I spray for bugs, but now I have got to buy me a spy glass to look for these little critters. Time to break out the hardware! Thanks for the pictures and the info.
CC, to find thrips take a sheet of clean white paper and hold it under the new leaves(daisy flowers and clover blooms are easy to find thrips on too) and whack the leaf with your fingers to make any bugs that might be on it fall onto the paper(this works for spidermites too). They are easier to see on the white sheet of paper. The thrips will look golden, not much bigger than a speck of dust and they crawl fast.
Poppysue, You take such good closeups. Wonderful pictures. I am familiar with all but the hover fly, hope I have those too.
I was looking closely at my CG, wondering why no more buds, had only a couple of blooms. Saw quite a few withered buds, less than 1/2". wonder what is wrong. We are having the longest hot dry weather in more than 40 years. It has been from 95 to 104 degrees for the past 10 days, was hot before but not that hot. My brugs are all in pots, and get direct sun only until about noon. I don't think they have gotten too dry anytime. Donna
Eewww...........Poppysue, you have earwigs too. Is there ANYTHING that will kill those ()#%*@*(#% things? They can shred a plant overnight.
great pics poppy, thanks bunches
I just love your pics PoppySue! Too good! All those bugs seem so overwhelming! But don't you find that some brugs are more trouble than others? I just sprayed for cats tonight but only a few brugs were being eaten alive. Maya really gets attacked.
Has anyone seen a cat eat a hole right thru the stalk to the other side? I assume it is a cat for the leaves are holey and I killed 2 green ones on it yesterday.ay.
Rutholive, you have a caterpillar that is eating your buds, it bites right at the top of the bud causing it to fall. Sometimes they are even up inside the little buds.
Kell, you have a borer type worm. I've had them attack two plants of mine. They drill a hole thru the stem and sometimes they go up thru the stem causing the whole branch to wilt. My plants were treated with imidicloprid but it's not stopped all the caterpillars. I asked the manufacturer's rep and he said it's because they are woody ornamentals and the imidicloprid doesn't work as well on that type plant. Guess it's time to get out the Bt.
I sprayed last night Susie. Will the Bt kill the borer worm? Gee, I wonder how I got that?
Kell I'm not sure, but it's worth a try. The first time I saw one I didn't know what was wrong with a side shoot that kept wilting, I cut it off and found the worm hole and saw where it had gone right up thru the middle of the stem.
Bt does something to the worms stomach but I think the worm has to eat some of it before the Bt works.
I'm blessed not to have caterpillars eat my brugs. ... **knock on wood**
I picked off wooly worms today. About seven of them were dining on a couple of my brugs. They will dine no more. I'm sure they were dinner for some birds.
Again....let me ask this question....does one need to have a regular spraying schedule for these brugs? Cause by the time I noticed the spider mites, it was almost too late..now I have naked stalks trying to green up once again...
I don't spray regularly. Only if there's a problem and I need to. Spidermites are the worst. You'll have to watch them pretty closely for future outbreaks. I didn't even know what spidermites were until I started growing brugs!
I saw this on a local gardening show, supposedly it works wonders to get rid of those creppy earwigs...cut the top third off a pint water bottle or pop bottle, put a tablespoon of tuna flavored canned cat food in the bottom, invert the top into the bottom so the spout is down inside the bottle, tape the top together, poke a couple holes near the top just big enough to put a string through to hang it on a branch, and voila! you have a baited earwig trap. They climb down through the opening and can't find the way out again. He swears it works like a charm. I bought a can of fancy feast yeasterday and I'm going to make a couple because I have earwigs camping in my brugs too!
Poppysue, thanks for the pics, I have those little white spiders, but I've been shooing them away, I didn't know they were good guys!!
Boy Carena, you are a big spender for you earwigs! Fancy feast indeed! LOL.
So you leave the top off the bottle and they go in there and then go up the sides where the cat food is?
A picture may help my feeble mind but I think I have it right.
i read something similar. they like the smell of fish. you can also put vegetable oil in a cat food type can, about a 1/4 of the way and they will go there and die. :)snicker snicker haven't tried it yet.
poppysue, i have every single one of the bugs you have. gee its a new england thang! although i found a green worm thing on mine and these little brown larvae things eating under the leaves that i have no idea what they were. dead now. :) snicker snicker
I am not sure if this works for Brugs too, but I had heard that if you have roses and butterfly weed plants the aphids will all go to butterfly weed. I have roses and butterfly weed with aphids all over the butterfly weed and no aphids on the roses. Have you tried this Poppysue? I also have brugs with no aphids (but plenty of cats).
It should work Delisa, aphids sure are all over my butterfly weeds! I leave them on there because the lady bugs always find them.
I sorta think... certain aphids are attracted to certain plants. I get the gross yellow aphids on my butterfly weed... but they don't bother other plants. I just assumed that species of aphid, is attracted to the BW. Same goes for the red ones on the heliopsis, and the black ones on nasturtiums. I don't necessarily think the keep aphids away from other plants.
Kell, after you cut the top part of the bottle off, turn it upside down and put it inside the bottom part so it looks like an upside down funnel inside the bottom part. They will crawl down the funnel and drop down into the bottom then can't figure out how to get back out
I will try it! I have earwigs on my roses more than my brugs. Thanks Carena.
I recently read on a thread where they bite you and they hurt. I have been pulling them off and I then throw them down and stomp on them. Since reading that thread I am petrified to touch them...LOL. Though I think our earwigs are much more friendly for I have never had one bite me in all these years!
Earwigs have those pinchers on them Kell like Poppysue's photo shows. Yes they do hurt.
since bugs are discussed on this thread, i think this site will be a good site to see also http://vegipm.tamu.edu/imageindex.html hth.
Oh Sue you are going to give me night mares with all those creepy crawlies. Na just kidding. But everyone makes me want to get a magnifing glass and run to my brugs. I never spray them except when I moved them to the green house for winter. I don't use pesticides unless I absolutely have to. My property is a certified mini wildlife refruge. I am a big birder.