My beloved brugmansia that I started from a cutting 4 months ago, and which has just unfurled it's first blossom, has some kind of small, white, soft-bodied, millimeter wide (or so) little bugs on it. It's an indoor/outdoor plant that I move inside when there's a hard frost because I like the blossoms on it and would like to get rid of the bugs but without any overly-toxic chemical methods. I'm a novice gardener and this is my first brug. I tried the spray-with-soapy-water trick and that only seemed to make for a clean, bug-infested plant. :) I hope someone can recognize these little bad boys and recommend an effective, non-toxic method for keeping them down. I'm not saying my brug has to completely sterilized, if a few tiny little bugs can eke a living out of the ecosystem on my brug then more power to them --- I just don't want a population explosion of them and then they're migrating away from the home plant and crawling all over evrything else.
Nice camoflage? What camoflage? You mean the coloration of the bugs? Yeah, I guess, but they're too small to be seen at the thumbnail (preview) size --- you have to click the pictures on the webpage and look at the larger versions, then you can see them, and they're not chameleon-like or anything they're just pale colored little bugs.
Aphids! I thought so. OK, now I know what they are (that's how new to this I am), I've got them beat. It's only one plant, anyway. Thanks. I thought that might be what they were.
I also have bugs on my brugs,,three different varieties, I think! I thought the small white fluffs were "mealy bug" and have treated them to swabing with a q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol. Very, very, labour intensive! As well, I have the little black flying buggers (whitefly?) so, put the yellow sticky tapes in, to catch those. I've dragged the two monster plants outside, to spray them, they got a little wind whipped, and sun burnt,,dragged them back in and watched closely. They seemed to do well for about a week, then, I started getting little webs (spider mite?) on the new growth. I love these plants, but, this has become a huge job, tending to them and their bugs. I know they'll fare out better, once I can get them outside, but it's just not getting warm enough, fast enough. Would appreciate hearing from any "Brug Experts", before it's too late,,thanks in advance
I'm not sure where you're located, I'm in Surrey, BC, about 3 km from the water so it rarely freezes here, especially by this time of year, but my brug has been outside and growing well since the end of April. All of last year's growth died off, sad to say, but the roots and maybe 9 inches of stem survived --- in the last month one tiny shoot has become super-big and bushy but no bloom-structure's yet. No aphids yet, either though, and I've been checking for them. Good luck.