I bought some dodgy strawberry plants, help me identify all the bugs on them?
1mon 8d ago by piefed.social/u/getFrog in gardening from media.piefed.social
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?
They all look like aphids. The white things on the last image are their discarded skin casts from molting.
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.
You honestly just need some "strong" food safe soap. Mix in a spray bottle at slightly stronger than the recommended solution. Insects stay wet through a small film of natural oils on the outside of their carapace. Remove the oil, and the insect dies in about 5 minutes for large ones like roaches. Aphids and spider mites just dehydrate within 30 seconds. Even bedbugs don't stand a chance, as long as you clean your entire house multiple times a week for a few months. The rest of your brew is good for eating, I wouldn't waste it on pests.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.