I am so annoyed! My Becca Lynn was just ready to have its first flush of blooms and almost overnight it's become an insect salad bar. This morning the blooms were full of holes from cucumber beetles and the new leaves were being attacked by a swarm of tiny caterpillars. I don't spray preventively – only when I see bugs – but maybe that's a mistake. I sprayed all my container brugs with Merit this morning and this evening there are lots of dead cucumber beetles and caterpillars – muah ha ha! But I'm going to have to write off this set of blooms and wait for the next round. BTW, of my other brugs, the only one showing any damage is Afterglow, and it's only got a few nibbles. Afterglow had one bloom while BL was trying to have about a dozen. Since BL was doing great before, do you think the bugs were attracted by the flowers? Is Becca Lynn especially tasty to bugs? Can I prevent this from happening again - does spraying regularly with Merit (systemic) make brugs prone to mite infestation?
Is Becca Lynn a bug magnet?
Tom, I find that the cucumber beetles don't descriminate when it comes to brug blooms and they can find them anywhere on your property. I've never noticed them eating anything but the flowers and they can get in them when they are not open yet and just feast away. I have lots of cucumber vines, melon and squash vines, and they will find the brug blooms and leave the vine blooms alone. Very irritating. This will be my first experience with Merit, so I can't answer your question about the mites.
Plant white petunias to draw the cucumber beetles away from your plants! I spray mine with DE/Pyrethrum powder that DH got from some organic products company, but since moving to TX, they aren't bothered by the beetles much, just cats.
Funny thing happened the other day. I kept seeing a female great tailed grackle hopping around on the brugs. Then she ripped a leaf off. I was getting upset at her till I realized the leaf had a big hornworm cat on it and she couldn't get it off the leaf! She took the leaf with worm over into the yard, put her foot on the leaf and pulled the caterpillar off. It kept wrapping around her beak. It was so funny to watch. She comes every morning and picks the cats off the brugs!
Now that's a win win situation for the both of you, just not for the cats of course. I have a mantis living in my plants and he eats as many things as he can.
Tom, I had the same problem with my hibiscus, the beetles would bore a hole into buds and eat them from the inside out, and I would spray and the leaves burn, turn yellow and fall off. Aren't brugs sensitive also? Maybe neem oil would stop them from nibbling in the first place without harming the leaves.
Will Neem hurt my mantis? I found some baby mantis eating mealy bugs and I moved them because I was spraying with Neem and was afraid it would keep the mantises from molting.
It just might.
That's what I was afraid of.
I think I'm going to have to write to the company I bought my mantis egg sacks from and complain. Nothing happening yet. It has been almost six weeks and they said hatching would happen in three to four weeks.
I though about ordering some but I think this year is a lost cause
they'll never hatch here...too cold and wet