Tiny white fuzzy bugs

Discussion in 'HortForum' started by texasvanessa, Jul 20, 2004.

  1. bedixon

    bedixon Active Member

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    number four is ladybug larva, you want to keep him.... number two looks like the same bug another post had a picture of, they were on tomatoes.... see the post on the thread "tomatoe sucking bugs" - someone said if you squish them they stink.
     
  2. redbomchele37

    redbomchele37 Member

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    I have these tiny fluffy white bugs their bodies are speckled black if u put 3 fleas together that would be the size of this bug and they bite anyone they land on my kids are getting eat up the kids look like they have chicken pocks from all the bites and bug spray and bug repellent aren't working is there anything I can do?
     
  3. blkkirk

    blkkirk Member

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    Angsaidso, I have just noticed 2 leaves on my front yard with exactly what you described. I thought it was a pile of lint, but as I passed them they all started to wiggle. I have not seen them fly either. I hate to kill them, but this forum has me a little freaked out, especially all the people from Tenn, I live in Connecticut.
     
  4. bubbaboo5125

    bubbaboo5125 Member

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    Re: I will get some pictures taken...

    hi i know what your talking about i have a pic. the most awsome tiny little thing you have ever seen i have only seen two in my life. still dont know what it is. but if you look real close it looks like a human head if you ask my 10 year old step daughter they are fairies and are bad luck to kill lol but the closest thing i found to it but not it this a bug called the woolly aphid.
     
  5. bpcloe

    bpcloe Member

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    Yeah, the ones you have are wooly aphids. You can find them a lot in Indiana. But they're harmless. My family used to go out to catch some pretty much every day, and we never got bites or any kind of itching. If you've been bitten by one, it's probably not the same bug. I agree with John O, they're practically fuzzy fruit flies. And I don't know about the jumping and stuff like that. They're probably the slowest bugs I've ever seen fly. They hardly even fly, they float around and turn when necessary. We're talking about two totally different things. The ones further south are the bigger, faster, and more aggressive ones.
     
  6. bpcloe

    bpcloe Member

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  7. BlueberryMania

    BlueberryMania Active Member

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    Hi there. Have a question. I have about 4 blueberry plants whereby the stems have a fuzzy peach-like texture. It is especially evident on the new branches. The leaves if you look very closely have smally white fuzzy hairs on the sides only. There are no signs of fungus spots on the leaf. Although the leaves are still flimsy and no flower buds seem to be on the plants.

    Would appreciate any help.

    BBM
     
  8. Beeker

    Beeker Active Member

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    I totally agree that we are talking about two different bugs in one thread. I live in New England, and one summer, years ago, I saw a cute little fuzzy bug floating around my magnolia tree. It gently landed on my hand and let me look closely at it for a few minutes. I noticed that it was a white fuzzy insect with clear wings and pretty blue eyes. I only saw that insect one other time that year and never saw them again since. It never bit me or overtook the neighborhood. I thought it was a charming little bug and wouldn't mind seeing it again.

    The woolly aphid is a terrible bug that attacked my jasmine plants. They cluster together and suck the life out of the leaves and stems of plants. I had to pick them off my plants, hose them down in the shower, and spray olive oil onto them to try to suffocate the aphids to make sure they were killed off. After loosing 5 out of 8 jasmine plants, I repotted and sprayed my jasmine plants with water every day. I am now down to one jasmine plant but it is healthy and pest free. What an ordeal it was! I never want to get a woolly aphid infestation again!

    I do believe that the pest that caused the initial post in this thread is the Woolly aphid, but I don't think that the little floating fuzzy fly is. If it is the same bug, maybe it is a different part of the life cycle, but to me, seeing both, I believe that they are two different bugs.
     
  9. bpcloe

    bpcloe Member

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    Well, if the white fuzz is just on the sides of leaves, it's probably not because of aphids. The larvae make cottony mounds rather than peachey branches. But still, you might want to be on the lookout. Wooly Aphids in large numbers tend to transform normal plants into sickly looking skeletons if you don't take care of it. Look for these signs if you suspect an infestation:

    • curling leaves
    • branch dieback
    • stunted or just poor growth
    • yellowing
    • "honeydew", a sticky substance that they leave behind
     
  10. BlueberryMania

    BlueberryMania Active Member

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    Hi there, thanks for the info. I noticed the curling of leaves a couple of weeks back and may be some honey dew spots (not sure). I sprayed the plant with a neem based pesticide. Although the fuzz is still on the stems and the leaves. I guess I will just have to keep a watch on the plants.

    Cheers

    BBM
     
  11. BlueberryMania

    BlueberryMania Active Member

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    Hi there.

    I just noticed aphids (not the wooly kind) on my blueberry plants. The leaves have a stick substance on them but I also noticed something like sugary crystals on the leaves. Is this normal? I pruned out the whole branch just in case.

    Any suggestions as to what controls I can use to get rid of these aphids. Its been raining quite a bit here and everyday I notice one more plant affected with aphids. I have even noticed them appearing in the new bushes that I ordered and have not trans-planted into a bigger pot.

    Please help, I would really appreciate any suggestions and recommendations.

    Cheers!
    BBM
     
  12. bpcloe

    bpcloe Member

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    All aphids have these things in common: They'll attack any plant they can get to, they multiply quickly, and are very persistent. The best thing to do is to find a good bug spray that won't damage any of the plants and spray the heck outta them. Use it as often as you can without endangering your blueberries. The water blasting technique is also good, and it won't cost you anything. Another way to take care of them is to keep as many ladybugs around as possible. They eat aphids like candy.
     
  13. BlueberryMania

    BlueberryMania Active Member

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    Thanks bpcloe.

    I read somewhere that aphids only attack plants that have nutritional deficiencies. I have checked my soil ph and so far it seems ok. I am thinking that may be its too much Nitrogen because of the ammonium sulphate. Any ideas?

    Most of the aphids have disappeared but I had to use a pesticide since the organic way (neem and soapy water) did not work for me. Now I spray the plants with soapy water to keep the aphids from comming back.

    Although I still have aphids on the plants that just came in from the nursery. And all I have added to those plants is water or rain water (when available). I can't use a pesticide as these plants are flowering and the bees will probably stay away.

    I would really appreciate any suggestions and recommendations.

    Cheers!

    BBM
     
  14. ehuston31

    ehuston31 Member

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    This is interesting...I have lived where I am at for a year now in North Carolina and after all the rain we just got, I found these weird bugs. Some were floating on top of the water in the pool and others I found in the tree on the leaves. They look really weird and have like a pasty feel to them. It looks like a tiny octopus on the outside, but then a little worm on the underside. It looks nasty haha. Is this bug dangerous do you know? Should I be worried?

    I saw someone mentioned in another post about the bites looking like chicken pox...You know it is funny that was mentioned..My son on Friday was swimming and when he got off his back looked like he was attacked by mosquitos. Well on Sunday he took his shirt off to go swimming again and well sure enough it looked like chicken pox. Now should i mention this to his doctor about this weird looking bug???? It now has me boggled even more, his chicken pox were not oozing and he was not running a fever like most kids do.....Any help would be GREAT.

    Here is a picture of what one looks like that was on the deck. I know tiny, but as I said it looks like a TINY octopus.

    Thanks for your help.
     

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  15. kanakuklover2013

    kanakuklover2013 Member

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    Location:
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    one day i was at my grandmothers house swimming, and i had gotten out of the pool to sit and talk with my mother. all of the sudden, i saw this tiny white fluff ball crawling next to my foot. i just barley touched the little creature and it, like, rubed off all the white puff and it was..... smushed.... but then i noticed... it had black blood? what is this little creature? i have been thinking about it a lot latley.. so i just googled it and this is what i found.

    http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74111.html

    please respond back if you think this is it!!!
     
  16. bpcloe

    bpcloe Member

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    It's either the wooly aphid you looked up or a different bug that just so happened to have something white and fuzzy on its back. It might have been food it was carrying or something like that. But it's more likely to be the aphid.
     
  17. JVGJR

    JVGJR Member

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    I am not much help, but I do know this I live in Virginia and we have that exact bug floating around our house and it is not a woolly aphid, but I can't figure out what it is.. I will take some pictures and post them tomorrow 6/12/09
     
  18. stevedtat

    stevedtat Member

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    I live in west central indiana and for the first time, I came across a few of them. my kids call them "fairies". I don't have a problem...yet. however, I have cut down and mowed over all those annoying hackberry trees. Is there a possibility they live in mulberry trees too? mulberries are quite common here and just as much of an annoyance.
     
  19. Beeker

    Beeker Active Member

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    I saw one of the cute little fuzzy flies yesterday! I'm glad they are back! They are so cute!

    However, a half-hour of travel northward...

    I noticed that a couple of the plants in the office I work in is infested with wooly aphids. Ugh.

    Definitely two different bugs.
     
  20. flowers 2 u

    flowers 2 u Member

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    I am a newbie, but on your pics this little white insect is exactly is what I am searching a name for. Please help. I live in Missouri. Thank you so much for the pics,very helpful.
     
  21. lafayettemike

    lafayettemike Member

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    I live in lafayette indiana and this is the first time i've seen one. My roommate thought I was losing my mind, until he seen it. It looks like something from Horten hears a who. Thank you for the information.
     
  22. Tex Mix

    Tex Mix Member

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    Re: Tiny white fuzzy bugs** PLEASE PLEASE HELP**

    Treesaw555,

    I don't think that the original poster's flying white bugs are the same as yours.

    That is not to say that your question about the little flying white "gnats" that bite isn't relevant. To put your mind at ease I can tell you that last Spring (2009) I was walking around our outdoor mall on a nice, sunny day along with many other folks. I noticed little clouds of "white gnats" conglomerating around some of the patrons. I noticed that when some landed on certain people that the people began swatting them and often exclaiming, " hey that gnat bit me!" You could see tiny red spots on their foreheads and faces after that.

    My wife saw her cousin who has no hair up front but lots in the back. We greeted each others families and that's when he said "these little white flies keep biting me!" We looked and noticed that he had a dozen or so red dots on his face and dome.

    Me and my wife have bachelors degrees in biology. She is a Dentist. I have been around the world and seen many biting insects from the Philippines to Alabama. We are pretty knowledgeable naturalists and I grew up learning about the outdoors. I have never encountered biting white gnats or flies in San Antonio, Texas where I noticed them at the mall last year, or anywhere else.

    They are a real and maybe unknown adult species or larval stage of some other type of gnat or fly. There is nothing like this in the States that I have ever read about, online or otherwise.

    Tell your friend that her physician's ignorance is no fault of hers. Most doctors know their specialty and that's it.

    You need to get a sample or three and bring them to your local university or college entomology department. They probably will be very interested in this perplexing creature. But what you speak of is real. Hope this helps.
     
  23. Sula MaMa

    Sula MaMa Member

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    We saw these fuzzy bugs here in Minnesota,for the first time last summer. I don't recall ever seeing them before and I've been all over the US while my dad was in the Air Force.Were they in hiding or some kind of new breed of bug?
     
  24. laurennicole7

    laurennicole7 Member

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    [​IMG]
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    That's the best my phone camera could pick up...

    The two long "threads" are pointing back, I deduced as much because of the direction it was walking in. This is the first time I have ever seen this insect. Sent me straight to my computer!!

    I thought it was a white spider at first.
     
    Last edited: Jul 21, 2010
  25. saltcedar

    saltcedar Rising Contributor 10 Years

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