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What are these little green bugs and are they doing damage?

16 years ago

This is the second, possibly third year that I noticed that I get these tiny green bugs with black legs on my yarrow. They tend to cluster up on the bottom of the flower but I have seen them on the stem, too. I don't know if they are doing damage or if the plants just start looking bad this time of year and I think it's them. I decided it was time to do some research!

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Comments (3)

tjsangel
16 years ago
Do you have any pics? Could be aphids, but hard to tell. They can do lots of damage, ladybugs eat them or there are sprays to control them. If this is what you have.

Jen
lindac
16 years ago
Never heard of aphids being on yarrow....
Any time you see bugs on a plant, the first line of defense is a stream fo water from the hose. About 75% of the time that will solve your problem. And if it doesn't, then try a hand held trigger sprayer with a very little bit of dish soap in some water. If those things don't work then get out the poision.
Linda C
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If you have ants, that may be what is causing the aphis on your plants. Although outside, the choice seems to be broccoli and cabbage first. The citrus trees are the target later in the season. Ants use the aphis like "cows." They carry them to the plants they prefer, and let the aphis suck the juices from the plant. Then the ants stroke the aphis to extract the juice, and carry it back to their nests. Curiously, one ant is selected to be the "juice-container." The ants attach this particular "chosen-one" to the ceiling of their burrow and begin to fill it with the juices. It swells up to many times its normal size and hangs there like a jug. Sorry - thats probably more than you cared to know about it eh? Just my 2 c's - plus a little extra. Bejay
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dmoore66, the grubs that are in the ground now are next years Japanese Beetles. Plus, there are scientific reports around that have found success with milky disease controlling other Scarab beetle grubs...it's just Japanese Beetle grubs seem to get the disease the easiest. I am a firm believer in milky disease. 5 years ago when I 1st renovated my front lawn with KBG, I put down a 10oz. can of milky spore. Last fall, I did a full renovation (due to Creeping Bentgrass in my KBG), front, back, and sides to 3 top-rated TTTF's. The results of milky spore are obvious, front lawn is damage-free, while back and side have patches of dead grass, which pulls up, revealing plenty of grubs. I now just put down a 40oz. can over the rest of the lawn. $30 for 10oz. at big box stores and garden centers. I bought a 40oz. can online for $68 shipped.
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Just a thought here ... Spraying with a chemical pesticide for aphids is something like using a sledge hammer to kill a fly in your living room. Far, far too much destruction for the simple thing you wanted to accomplish. Aphids are vulnerable, soft-bodied insects. You can brush them off the buds with your fingers, or hose them off with water from a gardenhose. Birds love to eat aphids. If you avoided the pesticide, and left the aphids where they were, birds and predatory insects would eliminate them with no action from you needed. Only, when you spray with something like the Bayer Pesticides, you kill the beneficial insects, and repel the birds. :-( so when you need them next, they won't be there. Jeri
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What a cutie! Is he a green assassin bug nymph? Check out the attached image for comparison. Here is a link that might be useful:
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ellen_z7ny
16 years ago
The thing with aphids is sometimes they do a lot of damage and sometimes they do nothing. If you don't see distorted new growth or sooty mold from their exudate, then I'd think there's no need to do anything about them. Otherwise, you could knock them off with water spray or squish them.

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