Black mildew

I've been reading the threads about mildew and almost all describe the mildew as being like a white powder. Mine is black, it is on a crape myrtle and Mexican flame vine. Do I treat it the same as powdery mildew?

Make sure the black stuff isn't the stuff from aphids since they love some Crepe Myrtles. (too late for my brain to remember what the black stuff is actually called)

Barbur,

The black stuff is called "sooty mold".

If you have any sucking insects (scale, mealy bugs, aphids or spider mites) they excrete undigested sugars they suck up from the plant juices. This is called "honeydew" and is sticky to the touch. Feel around on the lower leaves of the plant. Sooty mold settles in on this stuff.

Check all your stems for little, brown bumps. They would be scale insects. Could be another color too. If you can easily scrape them off with your fingernail, those are scale. Aphids would be found near the tender top growth.

Hope that helps! Gita

barbur,
I had a gardenia with this last year. It was still in the pot. I took a dish pan of fresh hot dishwater outside and scubbed it down with a scrubby backed sponge. Afterwards I planted it in the ground with most of the soil washed off of the roots first.
It is doing great with no sign of the soot again.
sidney

I sure feel dumb, I thought the problem was a fungus and never looked under the leaves! I've only been gardening seriously for about 2 years and these insects have me stumped. This was the top side of the leaves.

This is the community of bugs underneath! What are they and what do I do to get rid of them----cut down the tree????? Since I thought it was a fungus I had sprayed it with neem, 3 times.

The Mexican flame vine that had what I thought was mildew I cut down yesterday because a purple hyacinth vine next to it was heaily infested with mealy bugs. I never looked under the leaves--duh.

And here are some orange things too. Thanks for responding, please help me figure out what to do. I told DH yesterday that I love gardening--planting, weeding, deadheading, watering but I hate dealing with diseases and insects. I tend to look the other way and hope they will go away.

Don't feel stupid barbur! Every year something shows up on one of my plants and it takes me a while to figure it out, then I remember "oh yeah, that happened last year". And I remembered "sooty mold" last night in bed! lol The aphids are horrid in my garden this year. On a Crepe Myrtle you MIGHT be able to spray them off with water and control them, but on a small plant they crawl right back up. I think the NEEM is actually supposed to kill the aphids too, so that might work. You can also spray them with soapy water with some orange oil or insecticidal soap. Then you might go back the next day and spray off the dead ones. It's a real chore once they established, although I have no idea how to keep them from doing that! Maybe we can both learn... anyone??

Well, when a plant is down all pest know an easy mark. Did you spray the back of leaves too? If not, do.
I know you can get rid of these.
sidney