Baby Ladybugs?

I'm starting to think that my plants are better off without me involved!!! One plant that had developed a few naners got moved waaaaaay back in the bush - when I moved her she had some aphids, no watering, no ferts - I check every few days and she was COVERED!!!!! So I thought well, good luck to ya!! Now, a few weeks later, I check and I'm hard pressed to find one - what the hell - back at the greenhouse I'm afraid they may carry me away!!! It's not fair!!!! It's not the greatest looking plant but I didn't do nuffin' !!!!!
 
greenjeans said:
I'm starting to think that my plants are better off without me involved!!! One plant that had developed a few naners got moved waaaaaay back in the bush - when I moved her she had some aphids, no watering, no ferts - I check every few days and she was COVERED!!!!! So I thought well, good luck to ya!! Now, a few weeks later, I check and I'm hard pressed to find one - what the hell - back at the greenhouse I'm afraid they may carry me away!!! It's not fair!!!! It's not the greatest looking plant but I didn't do nuffin' !!!!!
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Natural predators on nearby shrubs or trees would become attracted to the new food supply.
 
No worries....

I glanced & didn’t read it thoroughly like I should have but Amy Gardner did rootopsy on a container plant the other day. She got really nice pics (think it was root aphids?) of nasty critters feeding on the roots. As you know most critters are above ground and if we search hard enough we can see evidence but those below the soil line often go unchecked. I mean you can’t dig up the rootball on a growing plant without harm, am I right?

Anyway case in point one of my clone twins has real bad twist in her leaves. Pretty confident it’s fungus gnat larvae. I’m hitting her with mosquito bits and spraying Neem & BT on the leaves and top of soil. This has been ongoing and I’m not seeing any flyers but the leaves are still very twisted. I‘m hoping I can break the cycle but her sister clone plant looks good.
 
013 said:
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Anyway case in point one of my clone twins has real bad twist in her leaves. Pretty confident it’s fungus gnat larvae. I’m hitting her with mosquito bits and spraying Neem & BT on the leaves and top of soil. This has been ongoing and I’m not seeing any flyers but the leaves are still very twisted. I‘m hoping I can break the cycle but her sister clone plant looks good.
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You might have Root Aphids.

As someone reminded be about a point last summer. The Mosquito Bits ( and Mosquito Dunks) have Bti as the bacteria that does the job. Regular Bt which is a slightly different strain or variety of the bacteria is usually applied to leaves to kill off small caterpillars and other worms that chew on the leaf. Spraying regular Bt on the soil does not seem to harm anything and for the most part does not help either from what I can tell and I have done it myself a couple of times.

Do a google search using the term;
what kills root aphids

Neem gets mentioned but it was surprising the number of other possible things that could be applied. I would list them but there were more than I thought and some are organic and some seem to be more chemical but fast acting.
 
Thanks for this SmokingWings. I use both mosquito dunks and mosquito bits mixed in top layer of soil, also used as top dressed and add 1/4 dunk to 5 gallon water bucket. I have sprayed Neem & BT on the foliage plus I spray the top of the soil.

I had the big Summer of 2020 MultiSpecies Orgy featuring fungus gnats & mites and got most of that knocked out. I’m doing bottom water mostly and not seeing gnats flying but strongly suspect there’s critters in the soil. I will do that giggle search and get after them
 
013 said:
Thanks for this SmokingWings. I use both mosquito dunks and mosquito bits mixed in top layer of soil, also used as top dressed and add 1/4 dunk to 5 gallon water bucket. I have sprayed Neem & BT on the foliage plus I spray the top of the soil.

I had the big Summer of 2020 MultiSpecies Orgy featuring fungus gnats & mites and got most of that knocked out. I’m doing bottom water mostly and not seeing gnats flying but strongly suspect there’s critters in the soil. I will do that giggle search and get after them
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Know the feeling of watching a Multi Specie Orgy.

Plants are coming in for the winter so I will be sprinkling the Mosquito Bits over the soil of the basement plants.

Over time I have found it easier to sprinkle a teaspoon of bits over the soil and mix into the top 1/2 or so. I quickly got tired of breaking up a Dunk and putting it into water and waiting overnight for the little Bti critters to wake up and become reanimated before watering time the next day.;)
 
I know, right-o... the multi species thing makes it harder to win.

Yes, thanks for that tip, I’m going to water in Spinosad! I just grab bits or dunks when I see it at tractor supply, started with dunks but do like the bits better, I just know to keep them on hand regardless of which version plus I keep liquid BT concentrate on hand too. I’m indoor so no risk of spray BT wiping out bee colonies
 
Has an diplomed horticulturist that had to study the devellopement of parasite and predators and prey. I can garantee that these are lady bug larvea. There are multiple varieties of ladybug larvea out there and the larvea are more active hunter then the actual parents, they need to eat a lot to morph into yound adults. Never remove predator insects from garden if they are there they are a tell sign that there is a source of food for them, resulting in having insect that are bad for the plants in the garden.

Unfortunatly they will not eradicate de probleme, but more or less control it up up to you to solve this probleme. Once the probleme is solved the adult will fly away to another location and other predatory insect will also migrate or die.
 
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