What is this disease/pest? Pics included.

15 years ago

We just got back from two weeks of vacation, and I discovered that a lot of my plants in several beds have been affected/infected by something. It's pretty bad. It's not just limited to one kind of plant; it's on my coreopsis, Shasta daisies, coneflowers, and others. I checked for bugs, but except for a few different bugs here and there, I didn't see any other bugs in large quantities.

I would really appreciate any help with this. It's affected about 30-40% of my plants. (Hope you can see the pics clear enough.)

Thanks very much.

Liz R.

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Comments (4)

rivers1202
15 years ago
Looks like it could be rust....a fungal disease of plants. Kinda odd that it's on so many of your plants, though...if it is indeed rust. My experience with this disease is that it's fairly host specific. There are certain plants I no longer attempt to grow in my garden because they always develope rust no matter what I do...flowers aren't bothered by it, but the foliage looks terrible.

Renee
anitamo
15 years ago
Not rust, I don't think, but damage from the four lined plant bug. Google their damage and check against your damage.

There's another post somewhere about this same thing, and that's when I realized what I was dealing with. At first, I thought rust, too, since we had a very rainy spring. I have various plants that are affected, like caryopteris, lysimachia clethroides, geranium macrohhzium (sp), weigelia....there's more, I just can't remember which ones. I'm making a list, though, because I need to remember to cut them down in the fall. The eggs overwinter in the plant stems, so if I get rid of it, maybe I can limit their numbers next year.

This morning I was out watering, and noticed damage on a weigelia. I saw the actual bug...four of them...I killed by smooshing them with my bare hands....okay, I had gloves on, but it felt good to take them down. They are a lot smaller than I thought from looking at pics of them. I was expecting bugs the size of japanese beetles, but they are a lot smaller.

This is the first time I've ever had them in my gardens or have ever even seen this type of plant damage.If you have a different problem than this, sorry for going on and on.
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ladyfern_ohio
Original Author
15 years ago
rivers, anitamo - thanks for responding. I looked both rust and the four lined plant bug up, and they both do look similar to what's on my plants. I had thought it might be rust too, but like rivers said, it would be unusual for it to be affecting so many different types of plants. So I'm gonna get out there today and examine them with a fine-toothed comb to see if it is, indeed, the nastly little four lined bug. I didn't see any previously, but I might not have looked closely enough.

Thanks much.

Liz R.
calliope
15 years ago
I also think this is damage from four lined plant bug. They're a common pest of greenhouse chrysanths, and those pics are so familiar, I can see them in my sleep. I've seen some damage on the spring mums from that, and immediately before I saw this post thought to be looking for four lined plant bugs.

It is not rust. You can see where there is damage to the cuticle of the leaf and it eventually browns around this damage. Very typical.