Well so much for Dr Doom! Yesterday I saw beasts on my brugs. Not happy. Have safered every leaf top and bottom and will do it again in a couple of days. Short of systemics, any advice?
Can't bear the thought of having them just go dormant now. A second one is start to set buds and the first one to bloom has lots more buds forming. This must mean they are happy - right?
Are the little white specs that look like dandruff on the leaves, the debris from the nasties hatching? or are they some other nasty that has to be dealt with? I HATE critters like this in my house!
more bug/brug advice needed
It may be whiteflies...the brugs seem to be a magnet for
them when the brugs are brought inside. I have a recipe
somewhere for spraying the plants with if Liz or Brugcrazy
etc. don't post one before I find it. The bugs are a
problem :(
What "beasts" are you seeing Lynn?
Sorry for the delay, I've been shuttling plants inside before the skies open.
I'm pretty sure I saw some aphids - safers seems to have taken care of them. I keep looking at each leaf and squishing anything that looks remotely like a bug. Don't know about the dandruffy looking stuff on the tops of the leaves. It doesn't seem to move - maybe its not alive. Sorry I'm not entymologically more aware.
Can you take a picture?
If they are aphids, use the Safers every 5 days for 4 applications to get all stages of the critter. They are born pregnant! [really they are]
This message was edited Oct 8, 2003 9:10 PM
Dandruffy, have you thought about mealy bug?
Actually I hate thinking about mealy bug. But I will safer every leaf and the soil every five days. Also will use MaVieRose recipe with alcohol and H2O2.
June, what is her recipe? Can you please share?? E.
check the datura thread in the brugs forum. it has alcohol and hydrogen peroxide.
I swear this bug thing is worse than having a kid come home from school with head lice. It sure was easier when I was the "got bugs - pitch it" kind of gal. My morning ritual is now up brush teeth vitamins workout and examine every leaf of every plant. If I had a gh full I would have give up working for daily leaf examination. So far I am sure I have little green aphids and little white flies. Does Safers ever build up on the leaves and buds and cause damage; should it be washed off periodically. Another job!!?
jagonjune I'm not sure where I got this recipe...prob.
somewhere on here-I also think it might be a Jerry Baker
one.
Whitefly/Aphid
1 can cheap beer
1 cup clear ammonia
1/2 cup Murphy's Oil Soap
1 tsp Miracle Gro
Mix in 40 oz sprayer and top up with water to make 1
quart. Soak the insects and leaves esp. the underside and repeat in 7 days. Spray every 2 weeks until under control.
Alternate it with MaVie's recipe and Safer's.
Have you removed all the large leaves? Much easier to spray and get good coverage once the big leaves are gone and the plant will make new small leaves that will suit it's indoor situation anyway.
Another option is to send the Brug into dormancy... stop watering it all together, allow all the leaves to drop, then place the plant in a cool, poorly lit place for the winter and only water very sparingly ... maybe twice in the whole winter. Once the leaves have all dropped off, treat the soil surface with what you have been using 3 more times, 5 days apart to be certain you get ant bugs in the soil.
For me, Brugs don't do well 'growing' indoors and are a magnet to any pest in the neighbourhood.
This message was edited Oct 13, 2003 12:54 PM
Thanks for the advice. I am going to try to keep them growing until the end of January and then let them go dormant so that I have till the end of February to clean up the area before we need it to start all of our seedlings. Can't take the chance on having brand new babies afflicted with bugs. I am assuming that aphid and white fly eggs don't just sit there if there is no food. They have to hatch on their regular life cycle. So if there is no plant material on which to live for three weeks or so I should have a clean environment for seedling propagation. I should have taken biology in high school I guess then maybe I would know more about these critters. But it seems that at this time of year they are as inventive as mice at finding a nice warm haven. They could come in our shoes or the dog or whatever every time you open the door and go out to do any garden work. I need a decompression chamber or something.