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I see 3 possibly 4 types of bugs in many stages of life. Can anyone ID them all? I didn't see the adults until I cut the limbs off and threw them in a bucket of soapy water. The adult mealys were 3 times the size of any pictured here. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| They're all one kind of critter. But different developmental stages. They're aphids, not mealybugs. And yes, some have a waxy covering, even more so than those on your leaves. What plant are they on? |
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| It's a small elm tree and there are mealybugs on the tree as well. I watched adult mealybugs almost 1/4" long crawl out of that mess when I tapped it with a stick. |
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| Wooly elm aphids in various stages of life. That's all I see. It could be easy to mistake a mature wooly elm aphid for a mealybug. There are lots of species of wooly aphids, by the way. This seems to be the time of year when we see a lot of them. |
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Upon further inspection you may be right about the pictures above but this is not a wooly elm aphid. 4-5 of these were also found on the tree.  I also found many leaf galls which could be from beneficials. |
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| After a rather tedious count, I came up with 3,427 give or take a hundred! Last picture looks like some type of elm pocket gall. If so, from a type of mite that causes little damage to the tree. hortster |
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| The critter on the blue background is a beneficial insect. Likely a syrphid fly larvae; They kill aphids. The aults are also called flower flies or hover flies and, because of their markings, resemble bees. You said you " watched adult mealybugs almost 1/4" long crawl out of that mess" The leaf galls are one of those things that nature does. Seldom if ever damaging to the tree's health. |
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| No jean it was not a mealybug destroyer/wooly lady beetle. If you'll remember I posted a picture of such last year. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Mealybug or predator
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