Tag: aphids

Whats bugging me today!

Hi Chris, I was so interested in your blog post the other day on the bugs and creatures in your garden, that I decided to take a walk around my garden too, to see if I can also come up with some interesting bug-a-boos! I was so amazed at what I saw! Maybe you and our friends out there can recognise some of them!

[one_half]Cabbage White Butterfly caterpillar[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Aphids and ants on my rosebuds[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Huge moth – not sure what it is![/one_half]

[one_half_last]Grasshopper – well camouflaged[/one_half_last]

[one_half]What is this bug??[/one_half]

[one_half_last]White fly – look how small[/one_half_last]

Tags aphids, Bugs & Pests, cabbage white butterfly caterpillars, grasshopper, moth, white fly

Bugs & Pests Christine's garden Gardening Home page features

Sunday Bugs

A walk around the garden this morning to access what I need to do today after the heat of yesterday reveals plenty of work and evidence of the wildlife munching on my plants.

Here’s who was in my garden today … (Click to enlarge. Apologies for the quality of some of the photos – I’m still learning how to use the macro lens).

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I’m not keen to kill everything that is eating my plants. Aphids … those I have to zap (and white fly etc), the cutworms have to go and those that decimate my Lilies? Sorry guys, not on my turf!

But beetles and caterpillars? I think they all serve a purpose in the garden so i’m leaving them be. I hope they enjoyed the lunch!

Tags aphids, beetle, Bugs & Pests, caterpillar, cutworm

Bugs & Pests Christine's garden Gardening Home page features

Gardening and Macro Photography

Post author By Christine
Post date March 1, 2011
3 Comments on Gardening and Macro Photography

At long last I received the Macro lens for the camera and what a learning experience this is going to be! No quick point-and-shoot photos anymore, this is a whole new experience and I obviously have lots I need to learn. I’m not a good photographer at the best of times (strictly a happy-snapper!) so photography with a macro lens is going to be quite a learning curve for me. I thought I’d share the first photographs I’ve managed to take. They didn’t turn out too badly but I have to be honest and say that of the nine photos I’m happy to share and publish on the blog, there are about ninety that are awful … so clearly I have to experiment and learn how to do this properly!

So here we are, my first Macro Photographs (click to enlarge):

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I really like the “Aphids on rose” photograph, but obviously I don’t like the aphids – I’m off to get rid of them now …

Happy gardening!
xxx

Tags aphids, gardening, macro lens, photography, rose

Bugs & Pests Christine's garden Gardening Home page features Trees

Lemon Tree Rescue

I was trying to come up with a good Title for this post that would describe the nature of it at a glance and I couldn’t decide whether “Operation Lemon Tree” or “Lemon Tree Rescue” would be more appropriate. The gist of it is that my poor Lemon Tree has been under attack by black, green AND woolly aphids and other things I could not identify. Since January I’ve been trying to cure it. I sprayed … it got worse! I sprayed again … it got even worse. I pruned it a bit, watered it well, mulched it, loved it, talked to it … I even begged the aphids to leave – all to no avail. It just got worse.

It is a very tall tree so I set up the ladder and climbed up to spray it some more with the result that I got a faceful of “spray”. Ugh! I was at my wits end with it and was contemplating chopping it down, but it still produces lemons even with all the creepies living on the leaves and yesterday we noticed that it even has flowers. So I decided in a last ditch attempt today to get back up that ladder and hand-wash each and every leaf and stalk to rid it of these pests. The “mixture” we used to wash it with included garlic, some crushed basil and ordinary soap.

So here we are many hours later with one aphid-free lemon tree. We’ve added some more compost, planted the mint and a few nasturtium seedlings below it, I’ve said a little prayer and now we will wait to see what happens.

[one_half]Aphid-free Lemon Tree[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Aphid deterrents at ground level[/one_half_last]

Tags aphids, lemon tree, lemon tree pest, nasturtiums, peppermint

Bugs & Pests Christine's garden Gardening Home page features

Impulse buy Peppermint plant

Post author By Christine
Post date February 16, 2011
9 Comments on Impulse buy Peppermint plant

I bought a little peppermint plant on Sunday – on an impulse – because I love the smell, and it looked pretty. Now of course I had to do some research because I need to find a good spot for it in my garden. Mine is called “Mentha peperita nigra”. It looks like a dead ordinary mint plant to me – I remember these from my childhood – we had this in a garden somewhere once … I think that’s why I love it, the smell reminds me of early childhood.

Back to my research – The very first thing I find is this warning: Mint grows very easily and is VERY invasive. If you don’t keep it well contained, it will easily and quickly grow into other areas of your garden! (from howtogarden). Thanks guys. Why don’t they write this on the little pots that entice impulse-buyers like myself at the Nurseries? … Ok, no problem, I’ll keep it in check. The last thing I need is another “Ivy-type invasion” happening in my garden.

On the positive side, I’ve learnt that Peppermint repels many harmful insects including two that trouble me, ants and aphids! Yipee! Next I read that Mint will grow nearly anywhere, but you will have the most success (and the least troubles in terms of plant diseases and insects) if you grow it in semi-fertile soil in a partial shade location in your garden – Sounds like this little plant was “meant-to-be” in my garden!

Guess where Mr Peppermint is going? Joining the Nasturtiums below the Lemon Tree!

Tags aphids, herbs, peppermint

Christine's garden Gardening Home page features

Lemon tree woes

The state of my lemon tree – it makes me so sad that my lemon tree is in such a poor state. Everything else in my garden appears to be doing well, the plants seem happy, all spouting new growth and some have new flowers. But the Lemon Tree …

As you can see she doesn’t look good. We’ve sprayed, we’ve mulched, we’ve fertilised … now we wait.

“Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat“.

Off to the nursery to get Nasturtiums …

* Chorus of “Lemon Tree” by Peter, Paul & Mary.

Tags ants, aphids, lemon tree

Annuals Christine's garden Gardening Home page features

Nasturtiums for our Lemon Trees

Post author By Christine
Post date January 23, 2011
3 Comments on Nasturtiums for our Lemon Trees

Hey Barbs, I found an amazing tip in this months issue of The Gardener which will help protect our Lemon Trees from aphids and scale. Here’s what they say … Sow Nasturtium or rue seeds at the base of fruit trees. Their presence appears to act as a deterrent to sap-sucking insects like aphids and scale. Concoctions brewed from the leaves of these plants are also used as organic sprays to deter these pests!

So I am going to buy Nasturtium seeds … they used to flourish in my garden, like a weed,along with the Ivy. We ripped them all out and I’m not mad about the idea of having a Nasturtium invasion again, but if I control their growth and just have them growing around the base of the lemon tree I think it could actually look quite attractive. What do you think? Worth a try if it keeps the nasties away!

And I know that some people put Nasturtiums in salads and use them in food preparation … so that fits in with you “edible” theme! I’ll get you some seeds when I go seed shopping this week.

Tags aphids, lemon tree, Nasturtium seeds, nasturtiums, scale

Barbie's garden Bugs & Pests Gardening

More Nasties in my Lemon Tree

Post author By Barbara
Post date January 16, 2011
8 Comments on More Nasties in my Lemon Tree

Now check this out! With the macro lens on my camera, I saw this and got a big fright! They are just eeeeeuuw! What are they? I see that the ants are ‘farming’ hundreds of these little nasties. With the naked eye, it looked like a fungus. They could be aphids but they look like scale. I am not sure. Do you know what this could be? My poor lemon tree is riddled with them. I know I have to get rid of the ants first. They farm aphids and the like and keep the good bugs from getting to them. So, the ant infestation must be dealt with. By the way, we have a big ant problem this year. It has not been this bad in a very long time – a few years, in fact.

This week, I need help on establishing what these things are.

Tags ant infestation, aphids, citrus scale, lemon tree pest

Bugs & Pests Christine's garden

Bugs and things …

I spent the better part of last Sunday spraying all my plants that had any creepies on them with the organic insecticide I bought and I felt pretty proud of myself afterwards, believing I had rid my garden of all the “nasties”. The spray container I have only holds 1 litre of water which I then add the insecticide too, then pump and spray. With only one litre and many plants to spray, I was running backwards and forwards refilling the container to get all the plants affected done. After that I did some cutting back of plants (to make them bush) etc. etc. All in all it felt like I had worked pretty hard. I’ve been very busy with work this week and have had hardly any time to check on things so Dexter and I did a walkabout now – and I was well rewarded with lots of new leaves sprouting on some plants that got cut back, all the sprayed plants look bug free …

But then … it seems like they all packed up shop on the sprayed plants and moved to one of my Camellias! The whole plant is covered in these things and ants are feeding on them!

Here they are. I am assuming they are Aphids. Can you tell? (you can click on the photos to see the large versions). Whatever they are I think the Ludwigs spray should get rid of them too. Dang, I thought I was through with the spraying for a while …

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Tomorrow I am going to go get me one of these bug sprayer thingys… My specs? It must hold about 5 litres of fluid, be reasonably light and east to use! Going to zap those bugs once and for all!

Tags ants, aphids, Bugs & Pests, camellias