Texas Coffee and Gardening in the AM...Sept. 23 to Oct.

Crow, I'm so glad my step mom's concoction is starting to work. So...I've never had mealy bugs before and I think I have them on my huge basil bushes. They get into the Vs of the upper portion of the plant and there is a gooey, white substance...as if it were white snot (sorry to be so gross) and then there are these little 1/8" to 1/4" long oval shaped bugs in the snot substance. Are those mealy bugs? Or do I have another problem? I used Bug-b-gone b/c I had no idea what it was and I sprayed and sprayed until the gooey gunk washed off and then I direct sprayed the oval shaped bugs that were hidden in the goo. And that seems to have stopped them for now. If it isn't mealy bugs, then what is it?

Then I was trimming back some other stuff and I found a really weird bug(s). Little 1/8" sized, pure white and fuzzy. At first I thought I had a bunch of fuzzy things on the underside of the leaves, but then as I looked closer, I saw these things walking and moving. They fly, btw. I sprayed the tar out of them with Bug-b-gone too. what in the world are those?

Bubbles, do you have a day that would be good for me to come down and get some cuttings this or next week?

Connie, oh my...how gorgeous!! Thank you so much for taking these pics. And I'm so jealous you got to meet Ex pres and Barb. Cool beans! Who has taken over your classroom while you are away? ;) Will you have a disaster on your hands when you return? Do the children get unruly when their teacher is away?
I don't have a clue what that berry picture is, but wow, is it gorgeous.

Belinda, my step mom says to spray mealy bugs with a concoction of Dawn (or whatever you have) liquid soap, water and alcohol. If it doesn't work right away, add more rubbing alcohol. I've never had mealy bugs as far as I know....I suspect I might have them now....

Does anyone know what works on spider mites. Those are the devils that eat up my tomato plants and my marigolds, etc.

Here is a pic of some Cherokee Purple maters that are going to be yummy if they have time to become big and ripe. I have lots on there but hard to see them when they are green and small amongst the leaves.

Michelle

bigbubbles ~ Neem Oil.............hmmmmmmmm, I haven't tried that one yet. Will check into it and thanks for the tip!
Connie ~ WOW, gorgeous pictures of Maine and its surroundings. Thanks for sharing those with us. If only our weather was so nice and cool. Maybe it won't be too long.
Michelle ~ sounds to me like your pure white fuzzy critters are unfortunately mealy bugs. So sorry to break it to you, but that is a perfect description of what is eating my East side gardens! I am going to try the spray concoction of Dawn, alcohol and water and mine will need LOTS of alcohol at this point! You might want to check this article out on your spider mite problem..............it was super helpful to my neighbor! http://www.bugspray.com/articles99/spidermites.html Let me know how it works for you!

RAIN, RAIN, RAIN here this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been doing a happy dance since 5:30 am! Maybe it will rain ALL day long. We need several inches to get caught up! Oops, I just caught one of my cannas doing a happy rain dance! I'm off to check it out! LOLOLOLOLOL
Everyone have a GREAT day!
Belinda :-)

Belinda, really, the little bitty fuz ball creatures are mealy bugs? oh no. I've never seen them before. And they fly right? The bug-b-gone killed them. What are my gooey creatures then on my basil?

I'm praising the Lord for the wonderful rain. Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.
Michelle

Beginning to rain here this morning. Hallelujah!!!!!

The mealy bugs have different stages, like caterpillars and butterflies, only not nearly so nice. The white fuzzy spots that, when rubbed, show little tiny gobs of yellow underneath, are the eggs. When they look like little white fossils, flattened fuzzy white ovals with tiny legs out to the sides, are when they are moblie. If you have fuzzy white flying things, it may be whiteflies. They are notorious for attacking gardenias. When my mealy bugs were the worst, the whole underside of every leaf on numerous plants were covered with white stuff. The alcahol, soapy water spray combined with a root application of Bayer systemic has really helped. They aren't yet totally eradicated, but I've put a big dent in them. It seems they really love salvias and copper plants, but will attack just about every plant I own. Good luck with 'em.

Hi, Belinda! (Great name...MY middle name!!)
Welcome to the thread!

Michelle...yes, they act up sometimes..just to "test" the sub! ha...but not terribly. I had a sub for Thurs and Fri. Monday was in-service day for teachers and a holiday for students.

Hey! We got 4 inches of rain yesterday! Yea!!!! We needed it so bad.

We had 2-1/2" rain in our rain gauge yesterday. Wonderful!

Ann

I thought the ground might be a tad squishy but NOT. The rain all soaked in quickly. That's how dry it has been here.
Lin

Thanks for the kind welcome, Connie. So far, good luck with the alcohol, dawn spray stuff. Slowed them down tremendously. I may add the Bayer systemic application, crowelli. At this point, I have to get a handle on them before they discover all of my other gardens! YIKES! :(
Fireant question for my fellow Texans. Does anyone have anything they use that actually works? I have tried SO many different poisens, all of them seem to move the mounds but not kill them? I really think the ground below all of us is crawling/moving with the little devils.
Lastly, is everyone ready for our cool front moving through tomorrow? My DH finished up annual repairs on the greenhouse, so I am ready just in case the temp dips down a little too low for my tender tropicals! Suppose to be 44 here for the low. I am ready for a break from the 90's myself.
Hope all of you have a great day!
Belinda :-)

All we have managed to do yet is dig the base for the greenhouse. I just hope we can get it all done before it gets too cold.

TexasGardenMom, I've used Ortho Fire Ant Killer on fire ants for years. I think it kills them by the smell! LOL. It's label says it kills the mound and the queen. I've been very happy with the results of this product and I seldom have a mound, maybe one or two a year and that's on a huge corner lot area. For the past two years, I've also put out a supposedly environmentally friendly product on the entire yard area in the spring made by Amdro that's supposed to keep the ants at bay. Our subdivision organized a program where the entire subdivision was supposed to treat each yard at the same to to keep them from running back and forth, depending on who was treating when. This has seemed to be a big help. Of course, getting everyone to comply is a problem, but if yours is the yard not treated, I guess if the ants all start popping up mounds in your patch, that'd encourage you to get with the program! Glad the alcahol/soap thing is working for you. Tomatoholic's the one who suggested it to me, so thanks to her again.

Crow, that is good info on the fire ants. We use some kind of granuals and I have also used Sevin dust. But the Ortho thing sounds better since it kills the queen as well. DH and I watched a show on discovery or history channel...one of those...about the fire ants taking over south TX and how a dude here in Austin has found the fire ants' enemy. A four headed fly. It was very interesting. The four headed fly buzzes around the ants which causes panic pharmones to be emitted by the ants which then makes the fly mate in mid air (hmmm...interesting to watch) and then the female shoves her egg into the body of the ant.

As the egg grows, it is eating the insides of the ant and then moves into its head and the ant's head falls off. Then the four headed fly baby emerges from the ant's head. I had nightmares about ants the night we watched that. Bryan said I was crying and wimpering in my sleep! haha. Anyway, these South TX guys came to Austin and got this fellow's four headed flies and let them loose on the ants. It seemed to work. It was a huge amount of trouble and major ordeal b/c they transported the flies inside the ants they gathered from their land. I think I'll go with the Ortho remedy. :)

Oh...and it was my wonderful step mamma that gave me the recipe for the mealy bugs...which I had no idea what they were until yesterday.

Michelle

Tomatoholic, I saw that thing on TV too. Very interesting. I'd love for us to be able to find a natural predator for the fire ants, but I'm leary. It seems to me that every time some scientist tries to tinker with nature, we wind up with something worse than what they were trying to fix in the first place. Good examples of this are kudzu which was imported to help stop erosion on steep slopes and of course, we can't forget killer bees. They got loose from a compound in Brazil where they were studying them in order to increase honey yields by crossing them with European honey bees and they've been slowing moving northward ever since. Fire ants and Norwegian roof rats are also accidental imports through shipping as stowaways. Thinking on all this, not too sure how safe importing a "harmless" fire ant predator might be!

According to my pest control guy there are several queens per mound and each will take her followers (I guess that the right word) and go make a new nest which is why the nests seem to keep popping up a few inches to several feet from the original. We need a Pier Piper to rid this world of fire ants and maybe we can have back our horned toads and other good stuff.

Ann

Crow, I'm in total agreement with you. So you saw that deal on the fire ants in S. TX too? Did you see the one with the big toads in Australia? They brought them in from S. America in the 1940's to feast on the beatles that were eating all their crops. Well, this particular toad has a mass of poison that comes out tiny holes in its skin when threatened or bitten. So it will kill anything that tries to take a bite of it. In S. America, the snakes and other reptiles are amune to its poison so the toad population doesn't go unchecked in S.America. However, in Australia, the reptiles/snakes do not have the amunity to the toad's poison, so the toads are taking over. Lots of reptiles dying off b/c they die when they try to eat the toad. the population is so bad, that there are people that go out every night and kill them b/c they will come into your house or whatever. The poison doesn't go thru human skin, but if a small child/baby were to get any of that toad goo into their mouths, it would kill them.

So that is why I'm leary of introducing "organic" means of bringing in one species from another country to kill a current problem. OH..the kicker to the toad story...the toads decided the beatles they were suppose to eat were too difficult to catch, so they ignored them and ate everything else other than the beatles, so the Australians had to use pesticides to kill the beatles anyway. And now they have this enormous toad problem. Hence why I'm not totally sold on organic means. Please...no one throw stones at me!

Michelle

no throwing stones here. I agree. You can only mettle with Mother Nature so much.

I really appreciate the fire ant tips. I will certainly give that "stinky stuff" a try. Did anyone wake up this AM with cool weather? My weather man missed our "low" by about 15 degrees, but yet it was still cooler when I stepped outside. Quite a nice break, I enjoyed sitting in my rocking chair on the front porch sipping my hot tea without sweating! lol
I am still taking in all of that new story you guys are talking about. Just the thought of seeing a four-headed fly! Whew, that is rough. I can't stand the single headed ones we have around here..............how in the world do people come up with that kind of stuff? They obviously have TOO much time on their hands, for sure! Curious as to how many different types of "predators" this guy tried before he came along with the 4-headed fly! YUCK. Terrible thought to me. Gives me the creeps. Crawling/flying things really get to me! :(
Happy Friday to all of you!
Belinda

If the four headed flies work on the fire ants, I'd be happy to have 'em. I'd even start a B&B for them, as long as fire ants were all they messed with!

Tomatoholic, I did see the ones about the toads too! You and I must watch the same T.V. channels! What little I do watch is always either National Geographic, Discovery or Home and Garden channels. I think both these shows were on National Geographic. The only other thing I ever watch is NCIS on Tuesdays and I'm addicted to that. I want to be Ziva when I grow up.