Much to my horror, I just found these all ove this one stalk. Should I amputate, leave em them , or what? They are just on one flower and the same color as the flower.
HELP
Help, what are these little bitty critters
Those are aphids, they love milkweed. You can just leave them or squish them with your fingers. The ladybugs and lacewings should find them shortly and make a meal out of them.
Yep, aphids. They look awful, but they won't last. The cold weather shoudl do them in soon if the ladybugs don't. My Tecoma alata was absolutely COVERED in them (to my disgust) for about a month. I kept putting off treating them because I didn't want to harm the nectar source for my sunbirds or aything else. Well, the first cool night we had and POOF! they were gone the next day. If you find them at the beginning or middle of the growign season, you can spray them with soapy water. That's supposed to get rid of them temporarily, and seems a much less toxic solution than regular pesticides.
-Julie
Welcome to the world of milkweeds! Those are specifically attracted to mw. I have had bouts of them, but the ladybugs and hover fly larvae have handled them. They are back with a vengence now tho, also with a black aphid. blech! Try and just spray them off with water or some soapy water or squish them. Since these plants can be used by Monarch cats, if you use chemicals you risk harming the cats. If you must use them, to keep the plant alive, wash the plant off afterwards. I love the Silky Gold. That's on my list for spring.
kkb,
Is that what I have here? Silky Gold?
Yep that's what mine look like, yuk.
I put one drop of Dawn in 32oz. glass of warm water went out and gently bent the infected stem over and rinsed them into that soapy water.I guess the aphids saw the "Free lunch" sign before the Monarchs.
Thanks for everyone's intrest and help.
I'd never seen yellow aphids before.
Yes these yellow critters are specialized on milkweeds and they even "jumped" on my tropical Hoyas when I had them outside.
Here a little close-up of these fellows :)
After a pounding from a thunderstorm this morning, mine were still hanging on. gggrrrr I forgot to go back out and spray them too. It's supposed to rain again tomorrow. Maybe they eat less when it rains. lol What you have is A. curassaciva "Silky Gold".
What brings an infestation of this kind to such a remote spot and concentrated to one stem of this plant?
Pure unadulterated EVIL! LOL They are so disgusting! And PanamonCreel...I really didn't need to see a close-up! BLECH! ROTFLMAO!
YEA! This morning I see no evil little boogers. My rescue has apparently worked. I'll watch it carefully.
I'm actually confused as to what Blech means.
The sound you make when you think something is disgusting ;-)
Gotcha. Its really nice to have an solutions at your fingertips. From around the world.
Yes, it is EVIL! lol These aphids are just specifically attracted to the milkweed plants, and they go for the newest leaves and stem that are softest. I am fixing to go out with my soapy spray gun and blast some away.
Get em!(;>)
I tried! I sprayed them and then ended up squishing a bunch. Nothing like yellow bug mush on my gloves and spray bottle. Blech! I found 2 more Monarch cats while doing it. :) I think I counted like 23 today when I brought them in. I'm fixing to take some of them to my son's Kindergarden class.
Thats great, I can smell that classroom just reading about it. I still don' have the Cats yet!!t
These are the little boogers that are there now, same stalk, only one.
I have the same plant and same aphid. Dang nursery labled it as A. tuberosa! Live and learn I guess. Great fotos of the aphids. I wonder if those "thorns" really work as a defense?
Those thornes are called cornicles and even experts seem not exactly sure what they do. It is believed that they emit chemicals to mark predators from those things. Exhaust pipes for aphids is my guess :)
John this Canon Powershot A75 just blows me away. Set on Av, zoom 10x, push the little MF (flower), about 10'' out, got that shot. I can actually see them boogers much better. I'm checking them every couple of hours. Still not good, varmits are lurking.
I grow Milkweed in pots too, to keep in GH over winter so all the Aphids stay on it and not my other plants
Hubby and I saw a program on insects. They said that aphids reproduce so rapidly, because the "newborn" aphids are born already pregnant!...(don't ask me how) ick!
And the turnaround for them to birth new pregnant aphids, is something like three days!
This is a better picture of them. You can clearly see they are all different sizes. Glad you told me. Now when I see them I just wipe/scrape them off with my hand. Then I wash my hands immediately.
This is a better shot I got that same day.
Ants use Aphids like cows. Aphids have a type of dew on their bodies. The ants collect this and take it back to their nests. Ants save the aphids in the winter by carrying them to their nest to winter. They will place aphids back on plant in the spring. I have trouble with my lily pads in my garden pond. When the lily leafs are big enough to touch the side of the pond , the ants bring aphids. It's a pain!!!
Yes, I've read and heard all of this too. Get rid of the ants at the same time as the aphids. Boy, that's much easier said than done, isn't it! I don't think all ants are bad for the garden either, but beats me which one is which. Around here tho, if you are an ant, you could be a fire ant so...bye-bye!