Perhaps the supermodel analogy will help? Just like a woman does not need to look like a supermodel to be beautiful, your garden plants do not need to be pristine in order to be good producers. Free your mind from the shackles of advertising! ;) There really are a small number of pests that are common and damaging. And even the ones that are damaging need to show up in large numbers to be worth getting upset about. You will be exhausted in short time if you allow yourself to get upset at every hole you find in a leaf (especially since not all holes are caused by bugs) and every insect you see. Take it more like the justice system- the insects are innocent until proven guilty. Which means catching one in the act before deciding it is a problem. This will also save you a lot of money. I do not view bugs as nasty, dirty little things, but more fondly. They are amazing little things, very much alive and following their own purposes. Some are incredibly beautiful, and all of them are amazing. That last picture you have is a moth coccoon (technically a pupa). You can actually see the transition from caterpillar to winged insect in those, it is very cool. I do get rid of insect pests on my plants, but not from an emotional, angry place. Like with weeds, I do it because it must be done to get the plants to bear food for me. I'm not saying you need to think fondly on insects like me, I'm just putting out my way of thinking because it is different. Cheers!

The brilliant green beetles are "fig beetles" ... native SW species. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figeater_beetle And yes, that OMGITSBIG!!!!! wasp thingy is a cicada killer. Impressively huge, but single-minded about hunting and hauling cicadas back to their nests. they are not likely to sting unless you grab it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphecius_grandis

This is my firs posting and I can see this is an old discussion but will try. I am also fighting the yellow bugs on my hoya. My fault for keeping it outside whjile we were living in a rental while we built a new house. My hoya is large and old. I started it from one leaf from my mother-in-law almost 40 years ago. It has never had bugs until a year ago. I have been fighting these yellow bugs on the new growth for the past year. I am going to try the alcohol treatment with water bath (insecticidal soap did not work in long term). I see that Amazon has Bayer Tree & Schrub on its website but it also has an Bayer insectide for aphids etc. Has anyone tried that?

I'm aware that the flys do no damage, just a irritant. I'm also well aware of the over watering problem. But the larva eat organic matter, sometimes the roots of tender seedlings. Damping off is a problem with lots of seedlings but not so much with palms. When I check the dead seedlings, you can see where the tap root has been chewed, the larva are visible with a magnifying glass. I found an article somewhere that said palm seedlings are paticularily vunerable for some reason. We have allowed the soil to dry out to the point of almost death in an effort to control them. I've done my research, there are beneficial mites and nematodes that I've experimented with. For the moment we seem to have it under control. My point was that the purchased soil booster came heavily infested, and then spread to all our other indoor plants. It can happen. We keep the sticky yellow strips about, just to monitor them, I only use soiless mix such as promix or sunshine mix and no longer add anything. I haven't tried ammonia, I'll have to pick some up. I have found on this forum that I'm not alone, especially with the Moso bamboo seedlings.