I have soft bodied flat bugs on my iris that are not planted

What are these bugs? What can I do to get rid of them...are they harmful to the plants? They look almost like mold. but they are just grayish bugs of some sort...the Iris are not planted in the garden yet, since I cannot water them at all...was waiting till we had some rain...but should I just go ahead and plant them anyway, and what should I do about these pests?
Thanks,
Janet

mealies?

I would suggest you try soaking them in 10% bleach 90% water for 30 minutes, let dry and PLANT

They sound like the aphids I get on irises I have overwintered in pots in my basement. You can squish them by hand very easily. Make sure you firmly squeeze the very bases of the leaf fans, though, because that is where they congregate and hide. You'll need to check for more of them and squish them every day to keep their populations under control.

I had aphids on some that I stored a while, too... I squished, rinsed, and then just to be sure I bleached... then planted them!

Okay, I will do that then. I had been wiping them off and they seem to keep coming back...so I guess I better soak/bleach and plant..LOL Thanks for the advice!

Soak - totally submerge. Put bricks on top of them if they float. Then clean & rinse and pot up if it is raining too much to plant out.

I am soaking them. totally submerged, trying to drown those little "suckers"! Thanks so much! I had read in one of my books that adding a little oil to the water would help suffocate them too.

Dont know about that. (oil).

Having said that, a couple of years ago I was away for months in the winter, leaving my precious LA iris under lights in the basement, baby sat by a friend.

When I returned, all iris were crawling with what I thought were aphids. Only the iris, not the echevaria or lily seedlings. I sprayed everything that night with olive oil (all I had around). It did work. Smothered them I think. A couple of days later washed all plants and they mainly survived.

inanda

I use soapy water with a little oil and listerine for a lot of my plants..lol Works for most things. I don't like using bleach or insecticides. Bleach smells so bad to me, it always makes me sneeze and I am sure it is not good to breath...lol But I know a lot of people have no problem with it and it does a good job of killing germs for sure!