Can anyone tell me for sure what these insects are? They are all over my Salvia that I ordered from a (supposedly) reputable online/mailorder Canadian nursery. They are horrible little things with white wings, and there are hundreds of them on the 6 Salvia I ordered. The Red Coral Bells that were in the same box, though, are not bothered with them at all...
These are some kind of "Homoptera" I'm sure, but because these are nymphs, it's hard to tell what kind they are. My guess would be whiteflies or mealy bugs.
the best thing that you can do would be to take a few leaves to your local extension agent to be sure.
In the meantime, you might try blasting them off with a hose and then a systemic such as imidicloprid which will get them as they suck the plant juices. A foliar pesicide, especially the lower impact ones that you'd probably want to use on flowers so as not to get bees, butterflies, etc - will require coverage to get kill, which means you'll have to spray up and under the leaves and take time making sure you hit them.
An example of lower impact stuff would be horticultural oil or insecticidal soap - the oil I think would be more effective though.
Any other opinions?
With a few of the strongest, least infested plants, i took most of the leaves off all together, left the strogest leaves at the top of the plant, and then gave them a REALLY good blast off with the hose..they seem to be better so far, but we will see... I need to pick up some neem oil or something, though the hosing off did a pretty good job. There are 2 plants there that I am not even going to TRY to save, they are so far gone....
I'm kinda upset, perhaps I should be asking for my money back.....
