I have lots of new pets here! They keep poppin up on the dormant plants in my basement. I'll get rid of them on one plant but the pop up over nite on another.
The nasty little critters have beady little eyes and long antenae. They aren't a normal aphid.... They look like plant lice from what I can find on the web.
Gosh PoppySue! Sorry you have new friends, but that is a GREAT pic!
What kind of camera do you have?
You sure take great pics. Have never seen anything like those bugs.
wish I hadn't had my mouth full when I enlarged it!! good camera you have there!
http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/kunkel/butterfly_walk/aphids_on_milkweed_a.jpg
I think they are aphids. This picture is a lot closer, but I've seen them with the naked eye and that is what they look like to me. Ugly little critters.
my camera is a cheapie... Nikon coolpix 2500. It does take good close ups, although I had to take a bunch to get one clear shot of these. I can't seem to hold the camera still enough.
These critters must be champion reproducers. They completely cover the new growth. I've tried a couple of different sprays but nothin seems to wipe them out on the first application. Even Avid isn't doing the job. I've had the best results from spraying with raid.
Good photo, YUCK!
They look just like aphids to me too.
Reading in my bug book, it says aphids build up tremenous populations over a short period of time. Were it not for their natural parasites and predators they would have overrun the world long ago.
It's estimated that if all the decendants of a single aphid lived and reproduced, there would be over 5 BILLION by the end of the summer.
So with no predators in your basement, you are in trouble.
Go get em girl!
Oh my Sue! Those are some ugly little critters.
I've been hearing more and more people say they use Raid Flying Insect killer on their plants. Is this what you're using? Does it do any damage to the leaves?
Ditto ! Aphids
:-P
§
Sue, try some Sevin on them. I think it will get them. Avid worked for me, but only after a couple of sprayings. I'm not sure that it is the best thing on the market for them and maybe isn't recommended at all. What you need is a house full of lady bugs. Boy, would they feast!!
Want me to send you some ladybugs?? :o)
I've been fighting aphids for several weeks now. I think i'm finally starting to win the battle. Or at least I think I am.
I tried using malathion first but I think all bugs are prety much immune to it now and all it does is make them get bigger!!
Then I tried an ortho product formerly known as isotox.Then I tried equal amounts of palmolive dish soap and murphys oil soap.The I tried liquid sevin. All of this was done within a weeks time of each other because none of the treatments seemed to be working.
Finally I found a bottle of dursban that I bought before it was pulled off the market.
One treatment with that and the aphids bit the dust.All of the chemical use has caused some leaves to turn yellow but new ones are starting to appear in their place.
Now if I could only find a cure for those !@#?$% mealy bugs!!
I've tried alcohol,systemics,all of the above chemicals,i've even gone as far as to unpot plants discard the old soil,drench the palnt with alcohol and repot but they just keep coming back.
The only things they like in my gh though is the cactus and succulent plants and the bugs are always below the soil.
Seems like each plant attracts it's own special bug. The aphids love the brugs and the mealy's love cactus juice.
Sue your pic is great. I'm not letting mine live long enough to pose for pictures though!
Poppysue - run down to your basement and see if you can find any ladybugs. They will eat them all in a jiffy and you won't have to breath pesticides - bad stuff. You usually can find them in your windows as they really want back outside, but would freeze if they get out without mulch for protection. We had them here in Iowa by the thousands this fall due to aphids in the fields of soybeans. When they swarmed after harvest they came to our homes also. I catch them in a pint jar with an apple slice inside for nutrition and a drink for them before relocating them outside near the trunk of a tree that has lots of mulch around it. I have hundreds placed at the base of a scarlet maple tree. They will hibernate and help me in my gardens next spring!!
I just remembered something Cindy was talking about at BGI.
Supposed to work wonders on aphids, but also mealybugs.
I have never tried it, but thinking about ordering some.
http://www.bonsaiofbrooklyn.com/products/supplies/t4cf.html
I ran around collectting ladybugs and ya know,I can't find even 1 in my GH,I had to have put 2 cups full in there.There were things in there to eat(aphids)
Today I bought systemic and something else...I'll see if they work...
Hate aphids,hate aphids,hate APHIS.....
I just ordered lady bugs for the greenhouse. www.ladiesinred.com real cheap!
Gee, I get ahids every spring on my new rose growth and my oleander new growth, I get black ones and yellow ones. I put a good long squirt of palmolive dish soap in the hand spray bottle and spray them till dripping. They die!!! Once in aong while I have to spray twice. Make sure you put enough soap in the sprayer
Yeah but ladybugs are good luck Kell! :o)
Warm water and some washing up liquid should do the trick. It is what I use for aphids here.
For aphids I use Pyrethrum with much success, Imidacloprid is first choice for mealy bugs. But lucky me, I dont have any. They dont like Brugmansias too much.
This message was edited Dec 14, 2003 1:18 PM
Those do look like nasty aphids. They take on the color of what they are eating, different juice's of different plants make their body color. You do have a nice colony going there. I use one teaspoon Palmolive dish soap to one quart of water in a spray bottle. Besure to spray the soil too, to get rid of any eggs, when spraying the aphids. Repeat at least at 10 day intervals.
Is that where they lay eggs?I was always told they don't crawl up so I always assumed the eggs were on the leaves
Here is a new one on me....Keep aphids off houseplants.
Wash aphids off houseplants with tap water, then dab the leaves with a cotton ball dipped in Smirnoff Vodka. Do not use alcohol on delicate plants like African violets.
http://www.wackyuses.com/smirnoff.html
tiG, Thanks for the Hyperlink. I did order 8 oz. and if I knew for sure that it would work without harming anything I would have ordered more as the shipping was more than the product. I have been spraying with soap and water but kills them, but immediately more show up. They are on my brugs and other things. Donna
Jeanne, which chemical is that at Rosemania. I did a search on site, and it came up with nothing.
Shirley, now that is what I would call pure alcohol abuse!!
I have tried palmolive and murphys oil soap mixed with water. It seems to work outside when the temps are nice but now that it's cooled off it doesn't seem to be working on them anymore.
I think the dursban has polished off my aphid population but the mealies in the cactus and succulent soil are still a problem.The roots seem to be the only part of those plants that the bugs want
I thought it was pure waste. LOL!!
Debby, I never knew that about Aphids. I just thought here were all different kinds! I get different colored ones but now that I think about it, always the same color ones on each plant. Sue's pic kind of proves your point! LOL
David, I had the worst case of mealybugs on my giant sang. It was covered. No way I could spray poison on it without getting it all over me. So I used the Bayer Systemic Tree and bush stuff you put in a gallon of water and pour on roots. It worked great! And it lasts for 1 year!!
And now that I think about it, I bought 2 big crape myrtles last year from HD in 5 gallon pots. They were covered in aphids. I did not want to take them home like that and felt the store should have taken care of the problem. In front of the cashier, I opened a bottle of the Bayer stuff, poured it directly on the soil and it got absorbed. Left the bottle on the counter and walked out! LOL. When I got home I watered them and left them apart from my qarden. The next day all the aphids were gone!
I'm with Cat,Bottle of V,and I would sit and laugh at the Aphids,LOL!
I think i've already polished off that bottle of vodka,but I might have just a smidgeon of jose cuervo gold tequila left that I could dab on them. My luck, all it would do is make them drunk and hungry then they'd just eat more.
Kell,maybe i'll try the bayer stuff. I need something that is actually going to be taken in by the roots. I've been fighting with the mealy bugs for over a year now. Luckily they haven't invaded all species of plants in the gh.
I have found also like you have that many of the plants from HD and Lowes are quite infested with mealy bugs.So for any of you who may buy plants from either of these places,especially house plants check them thoroughly for bugs before taking them into your house.
I've seen some at lowes that have been so infested with them that it should have been impossible for the supplier not to have seen them before sending them out to someone else for resale.
Gosh - look at all these great suggestions! The Raid has done the job for now... but I won't be surprised if they pop up again somewhere else. The active ingredient in the flying insect Raid is Pyrethrum. I haven't had any trouble with the leaves being damaged... but than again these plants are not in sun light.
I remember a while ago a show on the nature channel about the worlds top reproducers. Aphids were number 1! They reproduce by both eggs and live birth. Also... both the male and females have babies... no sex needed. They just keep reproducing... and reproducing, like the energizer bunny!
And they are the biggest vector of disease and viruses.
Maybe i'll try the raid thing then. I don't know if it was a combination of or just one of the chemicals but after using them I did get a bunch of yellow leaves that ended up cluttering my gh floor.
New leaves are appearing and right now i'm not seeing any bugs, including mites which for some reason love my herrenhauser.At present all of the gh brugs are bug free as are all of my other tropical or house plants.
I forgot to mention that I have also used safer soap on these bugs and all that did was cause leaves to drop also,it did not kill any bugs.
Thanks Jeanne. I finally figured that out by doing some searching. I found a mealy bug on one of my cuttings today. Gosh, I hope I don't have to start fighting them through the winter months.
LOL. I just looked up what was the insecticide in Bayer Tree and Shrub Insect Control. It is Merit, the active ingredient is Imidacloprid. I love it, you do not spray, just water the roots with 1 gallon of mix and it lasts 1 whole year! No bugs listed for a whole year!
http://www.bayeradvanced.com/pg/pg_gp.html#treeShrubInsectControl
Catsmeow, All the brug cuttings you sent me have rooted and most are in pots of soil now, except Herrenhouser. For some reason it seems to have died. thanks so much for all the cuttings. Donna
those are some nasty lookin little badwords you have there,--gonan have to go check mine tomorrow-----hope I cant see them as clearly as you seem to have captured them. cheryl
Luckly I have no bugs yet, but have the Avid ready when and if I do.
