I'm going to start my category of BUGS! with one of the most common outdoor growers pests, Aphids.
This plant is an Original Sensible Seeds Purple that did a major stretch for no apparent reason and will produce not much in the way of buds. I put her outside and she's had troubles.
I noticed little white specks on the leaves and the buds and thought it was debris from trees or stuff floating around in the air of some sort:
Closer inspection showed tiny white skins that the aphid nymphs had molted from. They looked like tiny white ants.:
Looking into things further, with this plant being so purple it was easy to see the critters:
As you can see, she had a major infestation. This one had wings. My research shows that one or two of the females will grow wings to fly to other plants if they are not finding enough food on the host plant:
I sprayed the plant with Sierra Natural Science formula 209 and it worked well. Most of them just fell over and the babies all died immediately.
This one hung on for awhile and finally dropped off:
Now here's some information about Aphids from Wikipedia:
Aphid
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Temporal range: Permian–present
PreOSDCPTJKPgN
Acyrthosiphon pisum (pea aphid)-PLoS.jpg
Pea aphids, Acyrthosiphon pisum
Nymph aphids surrounding the mother aphid were produced parthenogenetically and viviparously; sexual reproduction can be induced by shorter amounts of daylight.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Suborder: Sternorrhyncha
Superfamily: Aphidoidea
Family: Aphididae
Aphids, also known as plant lice and in Britain and the Commonwealth as greenflies, blackflies, or whiteflies (not to be confused with "jumping plant lice" or true whiteflies), are small sap-sucking insects, and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea.[1] Aphids are among the most destructive insect pests on cultivated plants in temperate regions.[1] The damage they do to plants has made them enemies of farmers and gardeners the world over, though from a zoological standpoint they are a highly successful group of organisms.[2] Their success is due in part to the asexual reproductive capabilities of some species.
About 4,400 species are known, all included in the family Aphididae.[3] Around 250 species are serious pests for agriculture and forestry as well as an annoyance for gardeners. They vary in length from 1 to 10 millimetres (0.04 to 0.39 in).
Natural enemies include predatory ladybirds, hoverfly larvae, parasitic wasps, aphid midge larvae, crab spiders, lacewings, and entomopathogenic fungi such as Lecanicillium lecanii and the Entomophthorales.
Diet
Many aphid species are monophagous (that is, they feed on only one plant species). Others, like the green peach aphid Myzus persicae, feed on hundreds of plant species across many families.
Aphids passively feed on sap of phloem vessels in plants, as do many of their fellow members of Hemiptera such as scale insects and cicadas. Once a phloem vessel is punctured, the sap, which is under high pressure, is forced into the aphid's food canal. Occasionally, aphids also ingest xylem sap, which is a more dilute diet than phloem sap as the concentrations of sugars and amino acids are 1% of those in the phloem.[10][11] Xylem sap is under negative hydrostatic pressure and requires active sucking, suggesting an important role in aphid physiology.[12] As xylem sap ingestion has been observed following a dehydration period, aphids are thought to consume xylem sap to replenish their water balance; the consumption of the dilute sap of xylem permitting aphids to rehydrate.[13] However, recent data showed aphids consume more xylem sap than expected and they notably do so when they are not dehydrated and when their fecundity decreases.[14] This suggests aphids, and potentially, all the phloem-sap feeding species of the order Hemiptera, consume xylem sap for another reason than replenishing water balance.
Xylem sap consumption may be related to osmoregulation.[14] High osmotic pressure in the stomach, caused by high sucrose concentration, can lead to water transfer from the hemolymph to the stomach, thus resulting in hyperosmotic stress and eventually to the death of the insect. Aphids avoid this fate by osmoregulating through several processes. Sucrose concentration is directly reduced by assimilating sucrose toward metabolism and by synthesizing oligosaccharides from several sucrose molecules, thus reducing the solute concentration and consequently the osmotic pressure.[15][16] Oligasaccharides are then excreted through honeydew, explaining its high sugar concentrations, which can then be used by other animals such as ants. Furthermore, water is transferred from the hindgut, where osmotic pressure has already been reduced, to the stomach to dilute stomach content.[17] Eventually, aphids consume xylem sap to dilute the stomach osmotic pressure.[14] All these processes function synergetically, and enable aphids to feed on high-sucrose-concentration plant sap, as well as to adapt to varying sucrose concentrations.
Plant sap is an unbalanced diet for aphids, as it lacks essential amino acids, which aphids, like all animals, cannot synthesise, and possesses a high osmotic pressure due to its high sucrose concentration.[11][18] Essential amino acids are provided to aphids by bacterial endosymbionts, harboured in special cells, bacteriocytes.[19] These symbionts recycle glutamate, a metabolic waste of their host, into essential amino acids.[20][21]
As they feed, aphids often transmit plant viruses to the plants, such as to potatoes, cereals, sugarbeets, and citrus plants.[8] These viruses can sometimes kill the plants.
Reproduction
Juvenile and adult aphids, aphid eggs, and moulting individual on Helleborus niger
Some aphid species have unusual and complex reproductive adaptations, while others have fairly simple reproduction. Adaptations include having both sexual and asexual reproduction, creation of eggs or live nymphs, and switches between woody and herbaceous types of host plants at different times of the year.[Note 2]
When a sophisticated reproductive strategy is used, only females are present in the population at the beginning of the seasonal cycle (although a few species of aphids have been found to have both male and female sexes). The overwintering eggs that hatch in the spring result in females, called fundatrices. Reproduction is typically parthenogenetic and viviparous. Eggs are parthenogenetically produced without meiosis[40][41] and the offspring are clonal to their mother. The embryos develop within the mothers' ovarioles, which then give live birth to first-instar female nymphs (viviparous). The offspring resemble their parents in every way except size, and are called virginoparae.
This process iterates throughout the summer, producing multiple generations that typically live 20 to 40 days. Thus, one female hatched in spring may produce thousands of descendants. For example, some species of cabbage aphids (like Brevicoryne brassicae) can produce up to 41 generations of females.
In autumn, aphids undergo sexual, oviparous reproduction. A change in photoperiod and temperature, or perhaps a lower food quantity or quality, causes females to parthenogenetically produce sexual females and males. The males are genetically identical to their mothers except they have one fewer sex chromosome.[40] These sexual aphids may lack wings or even mouthparts.[1] Sexual females and males mate, and females lay eggs that develop outside the mother. The eggs endure the winter and emerge as winged or wingless females the following spring. This is, for example, the lifecycle of the rose aphid (Macrosiphum rosae, or less commonly Aphis rosae), which may be considered typical of the family. However, in warm environments, such as in the tropics or in a greenhouse, aphids may go on reproducing asexually for many years.[8]
Some species produce winged females in the summer, sometimes in response to low food quality or quantity. The winged females migrate to start new colonies on a new plant, often of quite a different kind. For example, the apple aphid (Aphis pomi), after producing many generations of wingless females on its typical food plant, gives rise to winged forms which fly away and settle on grass or corn stalks.
Some aphids have telescoping generations, that is, the parthenogenetic, viviparous female has a daughter within her, who is already parthenogenetically producing her own daughter. Thus, a female's diet can affect the body size and birth rate of more than two generations (daughters and granddaughters)
Molting information from GreenMethods.com:
Aphids 2An additional problem that may also affect the aesthetics of the plant include presence of cast skins — a by-product of aphids molting from one nymphal stage to the next (which is occasionally confused by novices as stationary whiteflies since they’re white). Another aesthetics problem, if the population becomes large enough, is the formation of black-sooty mold growing on the sugary, ant-attracting excrement of these pests. This excrement (a.k.a. poop) is known to attract sugar-feeding ants which may, in an effort to manage their food source, herd or physically move aphids and protect them from biocontrols, natural and introduced. This last condition, if the aphid population grows large enough to support ants, can make organic aphid control even more challenging.
For more excellent information on garden pests, I found a site that explains many of the creatures we find on our plants:
Click on the "Plant pests" tab and you will read about some of our common problems.
This plant is an Original Sensible Seeds Purple that did a major stretch for no apparent reason and will produce not much in the way of buds. I put her outside and she's had troubles.
I noticed little white specks on the leaves and the buds and thought it was debris from trees or stuff floating around in the air of some sort:
Closer inspection showed tiny white skins that the aphid nymphs had molted from. They looked like tiny white ants.:
Looking into things further, with this plant being so purple it was easy to see the critters:
As you can see, she had a major infestation. This one had wings. My research shows that one or two of the females will grow wings to fly to other plants if they are not finding enough food on the host plant:
I sprayed the plant with Sierra Natural Science formula 209 and it worked well. Most of them just fell over and the babies all died immediately.
This one hung on for awhile and finally dropped off:
Now here's some information about Aphids from Wikipedia:
Aphid
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Temporal range: Permian–present
PreOSDCPTJKPgN
Acyrthosiphon pisum (pea aphid)-PLoS.jpg
Pea aphids, Acyrthosiphon pisum
Nymph aphids surrounding the mother aphid were produced parthenogenetically and viviparously; sexual reproduction can be induced by shorter amounts of daylight.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Suborder: Sternorrhyncha
Superfamily: Aphidoidea
Family: Aphididae
Aphids, also known as plant lice and in Britain and the Commonwealth as greenflies, blackflies, or whiteflies (not to be confused with "jumping plant lice" or true whiteflies), are small sap-sucking insects, and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea.[1] Aphids are among the most destructive insect pests on cultivated plants in temperate regions.[1] The damage they do to plants has made them enemies of farmers and gardeners the world over, though from a zoological standpoint they are a highly successful group of organisms.[2] Their success is due in part to the asexual reproductive capabilities of some species.
About 4,400 species are known, all included in the family Aphididae.[3] Around 250 species are serious pests for agriculture and forestry as well as an annoyance for gardeners. They vary in length from 1 to 10 millimetres (0.04 to 0.39 in).
Natural enemies include predatory ladybirds, hoverfly larvae, parasitic wasps, aphid midge larvae, crab spiders, lacewings, and entomopathogenic fungi such as Lecanicillium lecanii and the Entomophthorales.
Diet
Many aphid species are monophagous (that is, they feed on only one plant species). Others, like the green peach aphid Myzus persicae, feed on hundreds of plant species across many families.
Aphids passively feed on sap of phloem vessels in plants, as do many of their fellow members of Hemiptera such as scale insects and cicadas. Once a phloem vessel is punctured, the sap, which is under high pressure, is forced into the aphid's food canal. Occasionally, aphids also ingest xylem sap, which is a more dilute diet than phloem sap as the concentrations of sugars and amino acids are 1% of those in the phloem.[10][11] Xylem sap is under negative hydrostatic pressure and requires active sucking, suggesting an important role in aphid physiology.[12] As xylem sap ingestion has been observed following a dehydration period, aphids are thought to consume xylem sap to replenish their water balance; the consumption of the dilute sap of xylem permitting aphids to rehydrate.[13] However, recent data showed aphids consume more xylem sap than expected and they notably do so when they are not dehydrated and when their fecundity decreases.[14] This suggests aphids, and potentially, all the phloem-sap feeding species of the order Hemiptera, consume xylem sap for another reason than replenishing water balance.
Xylem sap consumption may be related to osmoregulation.[14] High osmotic pressure in the stomach, caused by high sucrose concentration, can lead to water transfer from the hemolymph to the stomach, thus resulting in hyperosmotic stress and eventually to the death of the insect. Aphids avoid this fate by osmoregulating through several processes. Sucrose concentration is directly reduced by assimilating sucrose toward metabolism and by synthesizing oligosaccharides from several sucrose molecules, thus reducing the solute concentration and consequently the osmotic pressure.[15][16] Oligasaccharides are then excreted through honeydew, explaining its high sugar concentrations, which can then be used by other animals such as ants. Furthermore, water is transferred from the hindgut, where osmotic pressure has already been reduced, to the stomach to dilute stomach content.[17] Eventually, aphids consume xylem sap to dilute the stomach osmotic pressure.[14] All these processes function synergetically, and enable aphids to feed on high-sucrose-concentration plant sap, as well as to adapt to varying sucrose concentrations.
Plant sap is an unbalanced diet for aphids, as it lacks essential amino acids, which aphids, like all animals, cannot synthesise, and possesses a high osmotic pressure due to its high sucrose concentration.[11][18] Essential amino acids are provided to aphids by bacterial endosymbionts, harboured in special cells, bacteriocytes.[19] These symbionts recycle glutamate, a metabolic waste of their host, into essential amino acids.[20][21]
As they feed, aphids often transmit plant viruses to the plants, such as to potatoes, cereals, sugarbeets, and citrus plants.[8] These viruses can sometimes kill the plants.
Reproduction
Juvenile and adult aphids, aphid eggs, and moulting individual on Helleborus niger
Some aphid species have unusual and complex reproductive adaptations, while others have fairly simple reproduction. Adaptations include having both sexual and asexual reproduction, creation of eggs or live nymphs, and switches between woody and herbaceous types of host plants at different times of the year.[Note 2]
When a sophisticated reproductive strategy is used, only females are present in the population at the beginning of the seasonal cycle (although a few species of aphids have been found to have both male and female sexes). The overwintering eggs that hatch in the spring result in females, called fundatrices. Reproduction is typically parthenogenetic and viviparous. Eggs are parthenogenetically produced without meiosis[40][41] and the offspring are clonal to their mother. The embryos develop within the mothers' ovarioles, which then give live birth to first-instar female nymphs (viviparous). The offspring resemble their parents in every way except size, and are called virginoparae.
This process iterates throughout the summer, producing multiple generations that typically live 20 to 40 days. Thus, one female hatched in spring may produce thousands of descendants. For example, some species of cabbage aphids (like Brevicoryne brassicae) can produce up to 41 generations of females.
In autumn, aphids undergo sexual, oviparous reproduction. A change in photoperiod and temperature, or perhaps a lower food quantity or quality, causes females to parthenogenetically produce sexual females and males. The males are genetically identical to their mothers except they have one fewer sex chromosome.[40] These sexual aphids may lack wings or even mouthparts.[1] Sexual females and males mate, and females lay eggs that develop outside the mother. The eggs endure the winter and emerge as winged or wingless females the following spring. This is, for example, the lifecycle of the rose aphid (Macrosiphum rosae, or less commonly Aphis rosae), which may be considered typical of the family. However, in warm environments, such as in the tropics or in a greenhouse, aphids may go on reproducing asexually for many years.[8]
Some species produce winged females in the summer, sometimes in response to low food quality or quantity. The winged females migrate to start new colonies on a new plant, often of quite a different kind. For example, the apple aphid (Aphis pomi), after producing many generations of wingless females on its typical food plant, gives rise to winged forms which fly away and settle on grass or corn stalks.
Some aphids have telescoping generations, that is, the parthenogenetic, viviparous female has a daughter within her, who is already parthenogenetically producing her own daughter. Thus, a female's diet can affect the body size and birth rate of more than two generations (daughters and granddaughters)
Molting information from GreenMethods.com:
Aphids 2An additional problem that may also affect the aesthetics of the plant include presence of cast skins — a by-product of aphids molting from one nymphal stage to the next (which is occasionally confused by novices as stationary whiteflies since they’re white). Another aesthetics problem, if the population becomes large enough, is the formation of black-sooty mold growing on the sugary, ant-attracting excrement of these pests. This excrement (a.k.a. poop) is known to attract sugar-feeding ants which may, in an effort to manage their food source, herd or physically move aphids and protect them from biocontrols, natural and introduced. This last condition, if the aphid population grows large enough to support ants, can make organic aphid control even more challenging.
For more excellent information on garden pests, I found a site that explains many of the creatures we find on our plants:
Producer of beneficial insects for biological pest control
biological pest control, natural enemies, beneficials, beneficial insects, biocontrol, bio-control, integrated pest management, ipm, organic, safe, natural, all-natural, certified organic, environmentally-friendly, eco, economical, efficient, sustainable, greenhouse, farm, interiorscape, garden
greenmethods.com
Click on the "Plant pests" tab and you will read about some of our common problems.
