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
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.
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
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
This site may help. https://www.organicpathways.co.nz/answerfile/question/70.html I have plenty of bugs to worry about just glad this isnt one of them! My sheep eat the passionfruit vine so it never seems to get big enough to entice any 6 legged marauders. Cheers,
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!!
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?
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!
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........)
It may be a beneficial insect https://www.ozanimals.com/Insect/Green-Lacewing-larva-1/Chrysopidae family/sp1.html
No to both, they look like https://www.google.com.au/search?q=....,cf.osb&fp=d748fc079aa76d0e&biw=1221&bih=674 without the wings, which according to the literature is the way they are in Oz. Definitely not beneficial, they're sap suckers making everything sticky. Anyone knows a place to get neem oil? Cheers, Jan