Gardening

6674 readers

159 users here now

Your Ultimate Gardening Guide.

Rules

Be respectful and inclusive.
No harassment, hate speech, or trolling.
Engage in constructive discussions.
Share relevant content.
Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.
Use appropriate language and tone.
Report violations.
Foster a continuous learning environment.

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

scarabic@lemmy.world

sabbah@lemmy.world

ManamaKhan@lemmy.world

Spacebar@lemmy.world

Bitswap@lemmy.world

I bought some dodgy strawberry plants, help me identify all the bugs on them? (lemmy.nz)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by getFrog@piefed.social to c/gardening@lemmy.world

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I have a few non-prime spots open in my strawberry tower, and I didn't want to put really good expensive strawberries in there because they'd either die or produce badly anyways. Now I'm not sure if it was a good idea, but I saw some half-off strawberry plants at the nursery yesterday and they didn't look too bad, so I picked them up.
I was 100% prepared for them to be infested with something, so I chopped off all dodgy looking leaves and all flowers right away and am keeping them quarantined inside for at least 1-2 weeks (all my other strawberries are outside on my balcony). I rinsed them off very thoroughly, first with running tap water then with slightly soapy water from a squirt bottle. the plan is to do that twice a day until I see no more bugs.
Here's all the bug varieties I found before rinsing this morning:

My guess is that it's just green aphids? Although that fat round fella from the first picture and the white guys from the last picture are throwing me for a loop, so I'm not 100% sure.

Do you think rinsing twice a day will be good enough to get rid of them?

all 10 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They all look like aphids. The white things on the last image are their discarded skin casts from molting.

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

All aphids.

Go hunting outside, or to your local nursery (even big box stores may have them) and get some Ladybugs! Let them loose on your plants and get these cleaned up.

[–] Bakkoda@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Food grade diatomaceous earth. Just get a duster or put some on your palm and blow it onto the plants. It rinses of easily, great for the soil as well.

[–] too_high_for_this@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, that's my preference too. I had a shitty roommate that brought home a flea-invested cat. We spent weeks trying different sprays, powders, shampoos, bug bombs, etc. They just kept coming back.

Finally got a bag of DE and dusted the house. You could watch the fleas come out of the carpet and die in seconds. They were completely gone overnight.

Cheap, easy, kills any insect it touches, and it's mostly safe. Just try not to breathe it in.

[–] LetThereBeNick@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Sprinkling it in your carpet is probably past the threshold for safe breathing. Would probably harm your vacuum, too.

I GET why you did it, it just doesn't translate to a PSA without asterisks

[–] too_high_for_this@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

I wore a gas mask. We got them before we did the bug bombs. You're probably right about the vacuum though.

Funny side story, we had friends with keys to the house coming and going every day, so when we bug bombed, we put signs on the doors that said "DO NOT ENTER UNLESS YOU WANT TO DIE!"

The next day, while we were all working, the police raided the house (I had a minor warrant, long story). They called in a SWAT team because they thought the house might be booby trapped.

[–] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Definitely just aphids. Soap or diatomaceous earth work as noted (though they do wash off, so they need to be reapplied after rain).

It's important not to over-fertilize any plant with aphids cause then their populations really explode. Also, for small populations like this, you can just knock them off the plant with a spray of water, a paintbrush, or my personal favorite: a cordless air duster (basically a hair dryer with no heat and a nozzle). Just knock them off every day for a week, and they should all be gone.

Don't put them close to other plants, though.