What are they?

Brooke

Dunno what they are. Thought you might know. To give you some idea of their size, they are on mid sized buds. My first thought was thrips, but not sure thrips are that wide. Are the round things eggs?

Whatever, they are, they were not invited and were sprayed.

Those are some wierd bugs.Are there 3 kinds in this picture? The pink spots that look like blisters to me? The flat brown ones? Then if you look on the right side(your right) in the middle just right above the pinkone and brown one, is that one? It may just be a white spot but I have some bugs that look like this every summer and I never know to kill, to leave alone or what? They are usually on some of my hardier shade plants and don't do a lot of harm. Mona

Are the white things aphids or dead aphid bodies? Gosh I think thrips are little light colored things that look like fishing string. At least that was my interpretation of them when hubby pointed them out inside a daylily bloom. I can see the legs on the dark buggy ones but have no idea about the round things. At first glance I thought they were ladybugs but I know you know what a ladybug it - my final answer - don't know.

Heavy aphids infestation has been reported all over the country this spring - I cleaned foliage/leaves/debris from my clumps yesterday and I found no aphids.

Brooke

The first 2 pictures give an idea of the size of the creatures. Note that I put a dime in the buds to show the scale.

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Earlier, I thoght the round things were eggs. However, the pictures below dispel that idea. Eggs don't have legs. lol I am now fairly certain that the round things are spider mites (the scourage of greenhouses). Still don't know what the other things are. I believe some are in different stages of their life cycle. I saw one with wings, but it scurried away before I could get a picture. Note in the lower left of the last picture. That appears to be something in an earlier life cycle than some of the others. Yesterday's spray did not seem to bother them. Guess I will try something else.

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Gotta go to work. Will post on the other threads later.

Royce, I've been looking through the 1979 Rodale's Color Handbook of Garden Insects, but it wasn't a whole lot of help. Maybe the bugs have mutated since then. I think the darker colored things are aphids in several life stages. Rodale shows bean aphids, green peach/spinach aphids, pea aphids, and wooly apple aphids. Yours most closely resemble the generic ones in the picture "ants herding aphids." As to your pink blobs, I didn't find anything even a little bit like them. I dunno what they are, but I don't want to meet any in a dark garden! With all their different stages, insects can be tough to ID. I basically follow your philosophy--I didn't invite them, so spray them. If that doesn't work, spray them with something else. Waaay long time ago I had a sick filly. I was giving her shots of Combiotic (don't think they sell that anymore) and charting her temperature twice a day, and bugging the vet about what could be wrong with her. He was a very patient man, but he finally told me that if we waited around to let all the symptoms develop to get a positive ID of her condition, she might not be strong enough to fight it off. Convinced me to take care of problems as they occur and let other people compile statistics. Good luck.

Lelia

I thought maybe the round things were scale but when I googled, they didn't look like your round things. I've never seen a spider mite so can't even comment on that one but I will say, this is one time I am not envious.

Brooke

I can't see them well, but I wonder if the some of the bugs might be Tarnished Plant Bug?

Here is a link that might be useful: Tarnished plant bug

Below is a link to spider mites. I've had them, usually on my elephant ears. I usually don't notice the mites right away because they're tiny tiny. But I notice the webbing all over the plant and the leaves begin to die. I usually cut the leaves off and dump the soil, rinse the plant and repot. Then I spray with soapy water every so often to prevent reinfestation.

I don't know what those round fat bugs are. Strange!

Here is a link that might be useful: Spider Mites

Royce,

After doing much googling, I think it's simply a case of aphids - there are MANY different kinds of aphids.

The links below show the Cotton/Melon aphid (which looks a lot like yours, but some of the others do too):

Notice the pic that says "aphid mummies" - those round ball-looking thingies
Aphid pics

and here's a better pic of the adult aphid:
Adult
Which came from this page (with much info about this type of aphid):
Melon aphid

Hope this helps!!!!

Tammy

Tammy, just a quick note to tell you I think you are right. Thanks for the information. Never heard of aphid mummies before, but it sure looks like what I have.

Thanks again. Gotta do some planting.

I keep finding more aphids so I spent 2-1/2 hours today spraying up close with the garden hose to clean off all my DLs. I don't want to treat chemically cuz it would harm the ladybugs I've been adding each year. Just reminds me I need to order more! I saw many, many, many ladybugs today as I completed my chore of spraying. i'll try to get the other half done tomorrrow!
Nancy

If the round things are the mummies, are the black things the aphid daddies? Sorry, couldn't resist.

Nancy use a soap mixture in your water spray, it will suffocate the aphid but won't hurt the ladybugs. Repeat every three or four days to kill the new hatchlings.

Brooke

Thank you for the advice Brooke. It will be raining here the next couple days so I will do the soap spray Friday. I did not know it need to be done every 3-4 days so thanks for pointing that out. This is the first year in the four I've been collecting that I found these things on SO MANY plants! They are the nastiest looking thing....well guess Royce's looks worse! LOL!
Nancy

They are nasty little critters and they will suck the life out of plants. I had aphids on a contoneaster bonsai a couple of years ago that had just about defoliated the poor thing before I noticed it. It was sooooo squirmy looking I was going to pitch it before hubby handed me the insecticticidle soap and said spray it! This bonsai is now one of my favorites.

Brooke