creepy crawlies in the agastache

Imagine my surprise yesterday when my agastache seeds, which I was de-chaffing, came alive. There were teeny tiny pin-head sized bugs prancing through my pile. How rude! They looked very much like the seeds themselves.

I've since read that others have had this same experience with agastache. What to do? What to do? I certainly do not want to send an envelope loaded with buggies out in a trade. Shall I throw the packets in the freezer for a few days? What is the protocol here?

Wrightie I don't think I've ever gone through a seed head that didn't have at least one bug in it. Any seed head. I just break the seed loose from the chaff and when something starts moving I smash it. I know that sounds pretty icky but THAT'S the protocol at my house.

I suppose the freezer method would work too. LOL.

Nah, not icky at all! I was squishing as many as I could, but these little guys were so tiny and difficult to spot, that I feared that I wouldn't get them all. They really do look like the seeds themselves and, since they were so tiny, they were hard to squish well. heh heh

Oh, and it seemed like there was a higher than avg. number of critters than you'd normally see in most seeds. I'm guessing Squishing & Freezer methods are in order here...

I'd gladly trade your pinhead bugs for the assassin bugs that are trying to take over our house. They seem to be mostly on the Yvonne's salvias which are drying in the dining room.

And exploring the kitchen. Crawling around the living room and family room. ......

Karen

I'll see your Assassin bugs and raise you some Camelback Crickets ... I just gazed into the antennae of one (BIG one), up close and personally, whilst sitting in the powder room. He/she was on the wall about one foot from my nose. No, I did not squish it! I was otherwise engaged at the time and more concerned with making a clean Exit...

LOL! I just found a zillion pinhead black bugs in the obedience plant seed I was trying to harvest. I thought the seed was probably not dry enough to freeze it without killing the seeds as well as the bugs, so I put it into an airtight little bag and popped it into the fridge... I wonder if the bugs are dead?

Usually I just hunt & squash as I'm sorting the seeds... but this dish of seeds and chaff was just seething with these teeny bugs!

Ugh, I found my obedience plant seeds to be most DISobedient when it came to sorting. What sort of arrangement / strategy did you employ for cleaning those, Critter?

None yet, LOL... gotta do something with the bugs first. It looks like the seeds might drop to the bottom of the dish as they are released from the little pods. But the seeds might be too lightweight for my usual blowing method of removing the chaff once dry! And I think they're a touch too large to pass through my strainer...

Yes, those were the problems that I ran into also. I ended up collecting very few seeds from it in the end. Next time, I'll do better.

It sure does reseed, though! I think the mother plant from last year didn't come back, but there were a host of little seedlings in that corner that grew and bloomed like gangbusters this year. I don't consider it invasive as such (not yet, anyway, LOL) because it didn't try to fling itself all around the garden, just reseeded in place.

Hey, I had the same experience with mine; this is only my second full season with it in the ground.

what color is yours? I've got purple, sort of a medium lilac color... might be fun to toss a pinch of white in with it! Somebody in the CG swap had white....

pale pale pink - I think I had one or two packets up for grabs. I'm not sure if I lost the tag or what, but for some reason I do not have it listed in my plant journal. I still need to rummage through the potting shed to see if the tag is in there.