Have seen these singly earlier in the spring, now I see them congregating on some of my sunflowers. Also saw an assasin bug feeding on them. Just need to know if I need to treat, got the japanese beetles around under control (hand picking) do I need to control these too?
Hello Buffy,
I think you have scales. Nasty little devils suck the life out of your plants. When they are this advanced (and yours are very advanced) the life of the plant may be in danger so that things like soap or alcohol treatments won't do.
You can use horticultural oil, which will smother them. Use "all season" oil, not dormant oil. Spray when temperatures are under 80 degrees. You can get it at hardware stores and nurseries. Follow the instructions on the container carefully. It will probably mention the temperature at which you can safely spray.
This is not only the easiest and most effective solution, but it is completely organic. In the future you might want to preemptively spray your plant. I use all season oil on my lilacs every spring to make sure I don't get scale.
And, don't buy dormant oil. it is much heavier. We use it more up north after winter.
Donna
ll s
These ae actually little green beetles, scales don't fly do they? These are about the size of a large ladybug but are mottled green?
Take another look at the pic...
They fly? Can you see them moving? Are they damaging your plant? The creepy thing is that there are so many of them.
They do crawl around, don't seem to be hurting the sunflowers they seem to be congregating on, but yes creepy thing is the numbers...I noticed a few at the nursery i work at but I think they beneficials have eaten that population...I have another post at a forum at FB so I am hoping for an answer...I'd hate to just kill em if they are not a species to worry about.
I found this information on creatures that love sunflowers, with lots of pictures, but I can't spot yours. Can you?
And of course, if there is no real harm, I wouldn't harm them either.
http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/pests/e1457.pdf
Here is my favorite "pest", the parsley caterpillar. They eat the flowers of my 2nd year parsley plants. I think they are adorable!
if you look closely at the photographs, you can notice a pattern to the markings on the back as well as a strange head in the bottom pic. I blew it up it was blurry but that was probably why I noticed the pattern. I am going to try and capture some in a jar today and amybe send to the local extension office for thier try, I could not find it under the extension office webby.
I am getting curiouser and curiouser since it is not found in any of the id sites I normally use and really have not seen this bug in this area before, and I have to scout at the nursery for good and bad bugs.
It's an intriguing little mystery. I love these detective hunts. Please let me know what you find. It could be new to your area. We are getting migrating birds that we did not see in previous years. Of course, I suspect the huge amounts of nectar plants I have in my yard are a bit of a lure.
Well i have been directed to freeze my critters and id the mouth parts to narrow my search to true bugs.
Literally freeze them? This is getting more and more fascinating.
Yes an entomologist group told me to freeze them, got to get a magnifier today seems my expensive one I had from botany class had mysteriously been broken without my knowledge.
If they were eating my plants I would use Bonide Systemic granules.
visible damage is barely visable, just a few brownish spots under the lower leaves...But I still wanna know what the heck they are since no one around here can id them...maybe a hybrid creature...LOL
Yea, I wouldn't pull out the big guns unless they were making them ugly.
