fluffy white aphids

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by j_cornelissen, Nov 19, 2011.

  1. j_cornelissen

    j_cornelissen Junior Member

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    Garden is being infested by fluffy white aphids that jump like a grasshopper when touched.

    Anyone any ideas what to do with them, without going for the hard-core poisons?

    Cheers, Jan
     
  2. pippimac

    pippimac Junior Member

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    Sounds like 'fuffybums', passion vine hopper's juvenile stage.
    Are they fairly large, say 3-5mm, with a fluffy 'tail'? The adults look like little brown jets, but while I don't know where you are, you're not likely to see them...yet.
    If it's passion vine hoppers, it's well worth trying to control them as they're sap-suckers and can really weaken their favourite plants.
    Repeated applications of neem helps, but get in now as the adults seem to be immune.
    They inject their eggs inside stems, with sort of fluffy dots poking out, in autumn.
    I prune in early spring (passionfruit and raspberries are their preferred egg-laying sites here), trying to cut out most of the eggs and shove the prunings in a drum of water till they start to soften, then onto the compost.
     
  3. Grasshopper

    Grasshopper Senior Member

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    Wooly aphids I hose them off if I see them, they dont seem to do much damage,they love to live on fox tail palms
     
  4. pippimac

    pippimac Junior Member

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    Do wooly aphids jump? The ones I've seen are kind of notable for their iack of movement!
     
  5. Grasshopper

    Grasshopper Senior Member

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  6. j_cornelissen

    j_cornelissen Junior Member

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    no they're definitely jumping. They seem to make some white stuff that's all around them and also on the surface they're sitting on.
    Could it be a mealy bug?
    They absolutely sit on everything
     
  7. Try Reason

    Try Reason Junior Member

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    There's some sort of joke about crossing wooly aphids with leaf hoppers in here...
     
  8. pippimac

    pippimac Junior Member

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    j_cornelissen,
    They sound like an unholy hopper/bug/aphid hybrid...Can you get a photo?
     
  9. floot

    floot Junior Member

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  10. j_cornelissen

    j_cornelissen Junior Member

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    OK they're wooly aphids and I'm treating them with white oil. Looks like it is having some effect.
    Had I known what an absolute pain these things are, I would have acted a tad swifter. the bastards even suck through the bark of my Mulberry!!
     
  11. Spidermonkey

    Spidermonkey Junior Member

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    I think I have these creatures too. In my aquaponics area they look like mealy bugs except they have a more pointed rear end and they leap like fleas. In other parts of my garden I would try a White Oil spray but I don't know if I could use in in and Aquaponics environment. Could it harm the fish?
     
  12. Greenmama

    Greenmama Junior Member

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    Yes, white oil is no good for fish.

    I've never seen jumping wooly aphids, mine don't move, so I wipe them off each leaf with a wet rag. It takes foreveeeerrrr, but its safe. I don't know what I would do if they were on a larger plant!
     
  13. j_cornelissen

    j_cornelissen Junior Member

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    solution

    well there was a solution for the wooly aphids after all; the hailstorm took care of them, there are hardly any left (unfortunately most of my veggies have had the crap belted out them as well........)
     
  14. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Not a fix I'd recommend waiting for!
     
  15. Stuk

    Stuk Junior Member

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    Sounds like thrips? do you have any pics?
     
  16. Grasshopper

    Grasshopper Senior Member

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    It may be a beneficial insect
    https://www.ozanimals.com/Insect/Green-Lacewing-larva-1/Chrysopidae family/sp1.html
     
  17. j_cornelissen

    j_cornelissen Junior Member

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