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Gardening in Canada

Four-lined plant bug FYI

10 years ago

One of my hardy geraniums has lacklustre flowers and is doing poorly this year, after being one of my favourite new plants last year. I wasn't sure what the problem was, but have now identified it as "Four-Lined Plant Bug". Apparently these critters are common in the northeast this spring. One of their favourite edibles is mint. They leave tiny round brown spots on the leaves, which might be mistaken for bacterial or fungus infection.

Comments (2)

greylady_gardener
10 years ago
I have had that and wondered what was going on with the brown dots on the mint. I have never seen any bugs, so did think that it was some sort of disease. This year has been fine so far but you never know when it will show up! :-)
What do you do to get rid of them?
ontnative
Original Author
10 years ago
So far I've just removed and discarded the worst damaged leaves. I believe the plant should just outgrow the ill effects of the bugs and carry on. Being a geranium, once it finishes blooming I will cut it back by 2/3 or so.
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