Looks like a little of everything. I don't know what those bristles are (possibly nematodes) but in the following pictures I see mealybug and aphid and what appear to be psylids. Spider mites also seem to be present. In the bottom picture are several psyrfid fly larvae. Those are friends that are feeding on aphids but you may have to sacrifice them to treat the bad guys. I'd graduate the treatments, starting with a blast of water from the hose to knock them off. Be sure to blast the undersides of leaves where most of them are. They will probably come back but most of your problems can be treated with insecticide soap, the safest for you and your plants. As a last resort if the soap doesn't do it in a couple of applications a few days apart you can try neem oil but try to restrict it to only the plants affected. You want to kill off as few bees and predators as possible so don't spray neem over the entire garden.

O, thanks for all the replies trickeling in. So far, the new growth is fine, the leaves smaller than the crinkled ones, but smooth and nicely green. About the Thrip damage: I know what they look like, and I checked my plant with a magnifying glass (factor 10, remain of some long gone botany lessons) on arrival , but I didnt find anything. The grape fruit gets plenty of rain and often gusts of wind, conditions neither thrip or spidermite like as far as I know. ---- I was intrigued to learn that ammonium fert and some other stuff (what exactly?? :-) ) could cause such leaf deformation. Well, thanks a lot, have a great summer, cheers, Lin

Interesting, Tom. I read your posts this morning as I was having my morning coffee. It prompted me to look up the 10-day forecast on the Weather Channel for each of our sites: At about 7:30 am St. Pete- 81 Sarasota- 78 Oakland-77 The 10-day forecast highs/lows: St. Pete- Highs- 87-88 temperature differential- 5-8 degrees Lows- 80-82 Sarasota- Highs- 89-90 temperature differential- 9-13 degree Lows- 77-80 Oakland- Highs- 90-92 temperature differential-13-15 degre Lows- 75-77 Of course, there could be microclimates where we live also. It seems you are definitely warmest at night and have a much lower temperature differential. I am in-between, but a little closer to the Oakland temperatures than I am to you. It could be that the temperature differential is the most important figure to see (differences between highs and lows in a given day). Today I'm going to throw out the 8 plants that look affected, and am going to call my nursery to ask what they have. I may buy some seedlings if they have beefmaster (3 of those plants will be pulled), and may plant a few seeds as well. My cukes and squash are just germinating and look ok so far so I will wait. Thanks for prompting me to look up the forecasts. That was very interesting and it makes sense now. I have been following Silvia's planting times, or lagging a bit behind, so I'm not that off what I should be doing, I think. I think being in close proximity to my neighbor's extremely weedy backyard is what got my plants- likely to be the source of my bugs/aphids. Anna

I just experienced a similar situation where I couldn't pinpoint the exact pest I was dealing with, as I mistakenly didn't segregate a new succulent before repotting and putting it out front with all my other plants. I had webbing on some, others had issues closer to the root, ect. I researched extensively and was so frustrated that I finally just decided to do everything I could think of to fix my plants because I was so devastated. By the end, I ended up doing several different things to about 25 succulents of various kinds and sizes. First, I sprayed all of my plants with a dawn/ water solution as well as sprinkling with Diatomaceous Earth when they were dry. When it was clear that this wasn't enough for maybe 18 of the plants, I took them out of their pots, cut away any rotting areas, including roots, stems, and leaves. Then I sprayed them down with rubbing alcohol, really saturating them and wiping off the leaves and stems. I used a clean paper towel for at least each plant, usually multiple as to not spread any pest or possible disease. I also kept any healthy leaves and stem pieces that may have fallen off during this process to propagate later. I placed each plant on a paper towel on a cart, mainly because I have cats, and wheeled it into a sunny room where they couldn't get to them. I checked daily for weeks to make sure I didn't see new webbing, pests, black spots, or signs of further rotting. I misted roots with water occasionally. At the same time, I began dumping the soil out of the pots (sadly because everyone received my fresh soil mix a few months before this happened) and I sanitized the pots. I slowly began repotting each plant and kept them all away from each other until I was sure everyone was healthy, which of course ended up coinciding with having to bring them in for winter. The process took months, and quite a few of my plants decreased in size from having to cut away so much of them, but I ended up only losing one whole plant with this ordeal. I'm impatiently awaiting for more consistent warmer weather to see my plants thriving and growing again!