Ruud Kleinpaste: Controlling sucking bugs in the garden

Most Gardeners are slowly getting more and more active, planting their specimens for the coming spring and summer (and I am not talking about Cosmic Crisp Apples!).  Anything that would excite gardeners is just about ready to be given a spot: crops, fruit trees, flowers, ground covers – you’ll know what a garden looks like.   So far, so good…  But from now on it pays to check the garden regularly – some pests are getting ready to find your precious plants as they develop through spring.   The hardest plant pests to control are the scale insects, whitefly, mealybugs, and such sucking sap-sucking critters. They have a habit of hiding in nooks and crannies and will become active when spring creates warmer conditions.   Scale Insects with ants   Scales are insects that create themselves a waterproof and often hard cap. Some are “soft” scales, but are still well-protected. Females lay their eggs under that cap and the larvae (babies) hatch and leave their protected “home” to settle somewhere on your plants. Newly hatched babies have legs and can walk and disperse.   Scale Insects sink their long tubular sucking tube into the phloem of the leaf/stem/twig/bark and suck the sweet sap, leaving “Honeydew”. This is harvested by bees, ants, and wasps – a dead give-away of sucking bugs being active on your plants   Scale Insects with Mealybugs in front   Mealybugs have a similar but white waxy “meal” over the top of their body (waterproof too!). They remain mobile throughout their life, though.  Whiteflies laying eggs (left) and a close up of an adult whitefly (right).   Whiteflies often occur in large (white) numbers on infested plants – you can’t miss them despite their small sizes.  Control for these three groups:   Oil sprays – stuff like Conqueror Oil, mixed in water. The oil will creep under the cap and destroy the scale-mealy-whiteflies. If you add an insecticide, it will drag the stuff onto their bodies even quicker.  But there comes the crucial part: repeat sprays! Eggs are not killed by the oil and insecticides, so you’ll need to spray again to get the vulnerable young scales and mealybugs before they settle and take over.   You have to do at least three oil sprays, about a month apart. The reason is that these pest insects are more-or-less waterproof, so any water-based insecticides would run off them like water off a duck’s back.    LISTEN ABOVE   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.