Ok...Everyone here is the latest developement....I hate to admit, but the first time I used toni's, yes yours toni, spray, I don't think I made it right. Or I don't think I hit up all my plants which probably could of left some buggies on some just to get on the others that I had spray. So this last time around, 4 days ago, I put into a spray bottle this.....2 tablespoons of garlic juice,8 drops of joy with lemon soap, 2 tables spoons of lemon juice,1/2 tablespoon of cyanne pepper, and 1/2 capful, a lot less than recommended of neem oil, and I still can't see a one pest. It seems to have worked so far. In fact the new leaves are not distorting right know. Keeping my fingers crossed!!! Here's the thing, I went out and bought a microscope, and it never helped me, becasue I still see no bugs to examine. As someone recommended, the next time I see them, I will use transparent tape, take some of the leaves and stick them to it, and then examine them. But I am honestly starting to feel like they could be baby spidermites. This is what confuses me though ok. If you have an answer, please, anyone let me know ok... HOW COME WHEN I SHOWER THEM REAL WELL, UNDER THE LEAVES, AND HOSE THEM OUTSIDE, THE POSSIBLE MITES, DO NOT FALL OFF AND AWAY FROM THE LEAVES? Instead, after I have rinsed the leaves off well, they start walking around again after the leaf has dried off. IF THEY WERE SPIDERMITES, WOULD THEY DO THIS? WITHSTAND THE WATER WASH? OR DO THEY RESIST LIKE THIS?. If they are suppose to wash off, then I have a different bug problem..right? HELP!!! I will try a college if they come back and bring in specimens. Toni, after I use your spray, the leaves look so clean and shiny. Is this what you get too? Also, when I spray, if I breathe in the pepper..whooohh. How about you, burnt nostrils..lol Like I said, if anything survives this, they are indestructable then!! So far so good. Hey, how many of us here take a shower with their plants? I am curios. I started doing this since then, I make them take turns, I take a different one with me each time and each tree seems to enjoy it..lololol. I give them a sponge bath while I am at it.Sometimes I close the shower curtain, then let HOT water run to steam up bathroom and let plants sit there all night or day. Hey what the heck,in fact, I bought a rubber ducky for my favorite citrus tree the other day!!!!lol toni, I don't think they are white fly. I have never seen them. No flying insect yet anyways. Some day I will find out what they are though!! I brought them home last year from a greenhouse, remember, and I thought with all the spraying and summer growth outdoors, they would not have come back, just diappear, but noooo. So I think they are babies of something that were just incubating and waiting for the right time to feed again. Maybe I never give them a chance at spreading to maturity by being vigelant. I just hope I solved this problem of these pests with the homemade spray solution. Thanks alot Thanks everyone! If you have anyother ideas, please tell me. I have not resorted to chemical yet,nor will, unless I find I am in a loosing battle. Thankgod I don't have more than a few plants as compared to some of you here. Hundreds. No way. I would be forever spraying!!!:-) I feel bad for anyone who has this problem in their greenhouses. Makes me think twice now, whether I want one, or just be satisfied with a few plants in a small room..:-) MIke

THANKS jean!!! Good thing I let that one (in the photos) go free!

OOOOOOH MY GOODNESS. I knew I came to the right place - as always. I just assumed Fori's comment was after a quick glance at my photo which showed a red and black bug - but they were absolutely right! My humblest apologies. It never even occurred to me to go earlier in the life cycle of a ladybug to figure out what it was. And a beneficial? Sweet Moses. I've learned a lot in this short thread. No wonder Google didn't pull anything up when I searched for 'black and red gardenia pests.' We had a HORRIBLE infestation of scale (we lost her sister to it a few years back) so my husband and I sat outside one night a few years back with a spotlight and wiped every single leaf one-by-one with horticulture oil to help this one get better. We will definitely reinspect for the real culprits now. THANK YOU BOTH so much! E.

Don't underestimate the tenaciousness of a hungry rabbit. In 2015 we were having our beans taken by rabbits. so I put up a 3 foot rabbit guard fence (smaller mesh at bottom, larger at top.) Still our beans were being eaten. One day I warden out to check on the garden and noticed a rabbit inside the fence. Curious as to how he got in (so that I could reinforce the area, I walked over to the beans and the rabbit ran to the other end and CLIMBED the wire to get out. I kid you not. Last year the deer started on our tomatoes and peppers, chewing out the tops numerous times until the plants just gave up. Your pictures look more like deer damage than rabbit. Rabbits will eat only the leaves (except young beans) leaving the stems. The picture of the beans shows the unevenness of germination--plants in full leaf and others just emerging from the soil. I'll bet that if you go take a look now, you'll see others that have poked through the soil and others that are straightening up. Happy gardening.