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Can anyone identify these insects for me?

16 years ago

Hi,

I noticed some strange bugs on the new growth of my Japanese maple. This picture is an extreme close-up; the bugs are about 1 mm in size. The round ones are very hard; I had to crush them between my finger nails to get rid of them. Would you happen to know what these are and maybe how to control them?

Thanks very much!

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Comments (4)

squonnk
16 years ago
Those are parasitized aphids. They're quite dead and They're bloating because they have the larvae of a parasite growing in them. It means the good guys are doing their job.

*For nerds only beyond this point*

If you want some good fun, clip off that bit of tree and put it into a small glass jar (like a nail polish remover jar or something). Plug the opening with cotton so that air can get in and out. Check it every morning. Not too long from now you'll find that the aphid 'mummies' have holes in their backs and there will be little black bugs buzzing around inside the jar -- those are the parasites. Some folks call them braconid flies, but they are actually wasps. Originally, they were grouped in with all wasps in the family Braconidae. Recently a good percentage of taxonomists have chosen to move them out of family Braconidae: sub-family Aphidiinae and into their own family - Aphidiidae.
jean001
16 years ago
And the fellows with legs are ladybug larvae, looking for the remaining aphids.
Related Discussions
can anyone identify these insects
Q
Comments (6)
Hi crayphish, I'm always a bit concerned when people talk about spraying with soap or botanical sprays like garlic or capsicum 'just in case'. The thing is, insecticidal soap and most botanical sprays don't distinguish between pests and the 'good' insects that control them. Even more unfortunately, in a lot of cases the 'good' insects are MORE susceptible to pesticides than the pests. I know there are some parasitic wasps (tiny wasps that lay their eggs in other insects, often the ones we consider pests, like aphids, whiteflies etc) - Aphidius and Encarsia species spring to mind - that are affected by insecticidal soap. The soap spray won't affect the leafminers, that's for sure, unless it has some extra property because of the mintiness, because the adult leafminer flies are long gone and the leafminer larvae are snug in their little burrow. I wonder if the leafminers even requires any action. It looks like a Liriomyza species, probably L. trifolii, which is considered a pest in commercial flower and celery crops, but fruiting crops like beans, tomatoes, cukes etc are rarely bothered. If you leave well enough alone the native parasitic wasps, Diglyphus species and the like, will probably come along and provide reasonable control for you. A bit of leaf damage won't hurt your plants and unless it's severe, it shouldn't affect yields either. Tracey
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Can anyone identify these insects?
Q
Comments (4)
Since Aphids only do lay eggs in the fall, and not in large clusters such as you have, what you have is not Aphid eggs. this may be an egg mass of a beneficial or possibly one of the innocuous insects or maybe one of the pests. We may not know until the eggs hatch. Your best place for identification would most likely be your local University of Connecticut USDA Cooperative Extension Service office. Put that leaf in a sealable plastic bag and take it in. Here is a link that might be useful: UCONN CES
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Can anyone identify this insect?
Q
Comments (2)
as suggested on your other thread, mostly likely leafhoppers http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/pests/msg1014442011985.html?9 Here is a link that might be useful: other thread
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Can anyone identify this insect
Q
Comments (4)
Other than telling you that it is a fly of some sort, I can't narrow it down without knowing more about it's location, size, habits, etc. In other words, the more we know about an insect's behavior, the better able we are to ID it for you.
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Hepatica
Original Author
16 years ago
Thank you so much for helping me identify these insects! It's good to know that they're not some evil bugs...

I have seen aphid mummies in my garden but they didn't look quite like this and I've never seen them in such a large group before. It's good to know that, even though they look different, they are not damaging my maple.

Jean, thanks for your comment! These have the same body structure as ladybug larvae that I have seen in my garden before, but the ones I'm familiar with are much more black in color (shown in the last picture). Are the ones on my maple a different type of ladybug do you think? Since they're a different color...

Thanks very much for your comments!
jean001
16 years ago
Ladybug adults come in various colors. So do their kids.

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