Needing help in the garden

Wednesday, Jul 13, 2005

Before I waste any more money on pesticides and any more time on Google, I’d like to know what it is that I’m trying to kill. (For any organic gardeners, vegetables don’t grow in the Florida summer heat, so don’t worry about me poisoning the family.) These white bugs breed underneath the leaf, and then move on to destroy everything in its path.

This is the middle stage.

This is the fully morphed creature that I’m trying to name so that I can pronounce my curses on the thing more effectively. “Die! Aphid! Die!” sounds a lot better than, “Go away and stop living, you thing.” This is the big feller here on my sick looking Don Juan Climbing Rose. The rose bush isn’t wielding any affections right now, though. Mr. Don needs a makeover show.

On a related note, over the years I’ve found that while impatiens can be easy to grow, microscopic bugs that look more like a fungus than an insect also easily kill them overnight. You go to bed with everything looking lush and wake up to your entire impatient bed lying on the ground. Easy to grow; easy to kill. Tomatoes are kind of like that too. Come to think of it, so is my hair. I know there are other ways to style one’s hair other than piling it on top on one’s head everyday, but I can’t think of any.

To complete this profound post, I’m also asking if anyone (Rick, Valerie, Mr. Kalm?) knows the name of the flower below. I planted a couple of these before the hurricanes last year, and of course, all my annuals and young perennials had to be replaced (or rather, just ignored). Anyway, I thought these had a distinct leaf on them and decided not to pull them during weeding. Apparently, they self-seed and reproduce without any prodding on my part. They also tolerate the heat very well. So, I think this might be a plant that I want to put in multiple areas, as I need low-maintenance specimens. That’s just so I can better concentrate on my more “active higher maintenance specimens,” found inside, outside, in trees, and in pools. They also make good snacks for their mom and are pretty disease and pest resistant.

17 Comments

1. Actually, they do look like aphids, in the beginning stages.

   But, I really know nothing about southern bugs. Sorry!

   Comment by Holly (July 13, 2005 @ 1:18 pm )

2. Is the flower possibly a globe amaranth? They dry nicely.

   Comment by Cindy (July 13, 2005 @ 1:21 pm )

3. My suggestion would be to catch one, place it in a ziplock and take it to a local nursery.

   Maybe it is a Silverleaf Whitefly
   http://www.uckac.edu/whitefly

   Comment by Ralph (July 13, 2005 @ 3:56 pm )

4. I think the flowers in the bottom picture are bachelor buttons. Not positive but it looks like them.

   Did you know they use bachelor buttons to develope a form of chemotherapy?

   Perhaps you could rub some of them on your aphids!

   

   Comment by Tim (July 13, 2005 @ 10:56 pm )

5. Yes, it’s a globe amaranth!

   Comment by anonymous (July 13, 2005 @ 11:09 pm )

6. Red Clover?

   Comment by Ralph (July 14, 2005 @ 8:41 am )

7. It does seem to resemble the whitefly. If you do a search on Google for “Florida + whitefly” a number of pages come up. This one looked interesting to me:

   http://www.gardenerspath.com/articles/organic/whitefly.html

   It appears that they also cause problems by attracting mold fungi and spreading plant viruses. Yuck. Hope this helps.

   Comment by Firefly (July 14, 2005 @ 11:56 am )

8. OK, I checked out the pics of the whitefly and that’s definately not it. I wish I could’ve gotten a closer shot, but my digital wouldn’t focus any closer. It’s a very good guess based on the pictures I provided though. My creature, though, does not have wings. While the body is all white, there appears to be indentated stripes on its body–not another color, all white. It’s also very mushy, and gushes if you try to pick it off.

   My dh got a book from the library and we haven’t seen it in there either. I like the suggestion to take it to the local nursery, but the guys that work at the one we shop at don’t even know what vermiculite is. I might try our local extention office or email the guy that’s on talk-radio, but I think he got tired of me awhile ago with all my blueberry questions.

   As for the purple flower, it’s not red clover or bachelor buttons, rather, Cindy and anonymous are correct: it’s a globe amaranth. Thanks for the help! According to a few sites, they are a top pick for drying. I should get more colors now that I know. (But, I’ve never seen any locally that weren’t purple.) The ease of propegation makes it a top pick for me! (Now, if only I could propegate that easily without all the sickness…)

   Comment by Amy (July 14, 2005 @ 12:14 pm )

9. Take a look at cottony cushion scale.
   http://gardenbees.com/biological%20control/revolution.htm
   Difficult to control and any pesticide you have tried already may have only killed the beneficials. For now, try spraying the plants off with a strong stream of water to wash off any sticky honeydew excreted by the scale. This will keep down a secondary invasion of aphids or sooty molds.

   Comment by Carol (July 14, 2005 @ 2:05 pm )

10. Carol,

    That’s it!!!!!!!!! After pouring over hundreds of pages of pictures of bugs, you’ve found it for me. At first, I was disappointed because the first picture is not at all like my little creature, but the second picture is exactly it. A big thank you!

    Now onto the “difficult to control” part…that’s not good news, as I already have an infestation on my hands.

    Comment by Amy (July 14, 2005 @ 2:38 pm )

11. Sorry I couldn’t help you, Amy! Sure glad Cindy knew what the flowers were. The blooms do look similar to clover, but those certainly are not clover leaves. Boy! From the sounds of it, I’d like some of that plant in my yard.

    It’s great that you’ve discovered what your bug-buddies are. I sure hope you are able to send those neighbors packing.

    Comment by Valerie (BBG) (July 14, 2005 @ 4:06 pm )

12. I’ve been reading your blog for a while and enjoy it greatly. I seem to learn something often–like the flower. I, too, have it in the yard. Now I know what it is! Thank you to everyone who shared. Have you smelled the flower? It is wonderful!

    Comment by Denise (July 14, 2005 @ 4:37 pm )

13. Hello from a fellow Momys. I thought it looked like a scale bug. My Rodale’s doesn’t say much on how to control them now but recommends spraying with dormant oil in early spring, before growth begins. Predators are listed as many lady beetles, particularly vedalia. But since they are squishy you are most likely squishing eggs - that’s what the ridges are. Yuck!

    Good luck!

    Comment by Stephanie (July 14, 2005 @ 11:05 pm )

14. Have you tried good old soap-and-water on these bugs? It’s a tried-and-true harmless “pesticide” around here (in Canada), and I know I used it to kill an awful bunch of plant lice that infested my old roses when I was away from home on business for a week in late May. Just mix up a bit of dish soap with some water and spray away! It’ll usually trouble bugs but not the plant.

    And I never know what to do with my unruly mop of Irish hair, either, just so you know.

    Comment by Mrs. P. (July 15, 2005 @ 11:19 am )

15. Neem oil is supposed to be an excellent bug repellant if you are looking for something bugs hate but which is not toxic to people or animals.

    Comment by Cheryl (July 15, 2005 @ 8:13 pm )

16. Hi, I live in FL also and know how hard it can be to grow plants, especially beach-side.
    Those purple round flowers are pretty though It’s always lovely to see colors other than green in this area.

    Comment by Erin (July 16, 2005 @ 11:00 pm )

17. Amy,

    I found you through a random Google search while looking for my old friend Amy to see if she had a blog. I happened upon yours, and I enjoy meeting any blogger who is aspiring to be a Proverbs 31 woman! I have four kids too, but none on the way.

    Blessings, Darlene

    Comment by Darlene S. (July 17, 2005 @ 7:37 pm )

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