"I planted Holy basil and regular basil this spring. The honeybees and several different bees, wasps and butterflies love it. Along with lots of green spiders. Unfortunately, I've only seen the green spiders eat beneficials." Thanks for mentioning the basil, it is another excellent bee plant for the vegetable garden. As for spiders... my observations mirror yours. Spiders are indiscriminate killers - and they are just as likely to kill beneficial insects as harmful ones. They are often listed as "beneficial", but I would rate them neutral at best. I've also had some nasty bites from spiders, and those bites heal slowly, so I don't have a great love for them. Fortunately, the wasp population in my property is very high - including mud daubers. Some of them hunt spiders, and do so very effectively... so the spider population in my garden is very low. Only those which spin webs at night & hide during the day escape the wasps, which suits me just fine. Never tried Murphy's Oil. I've used insecticidal soap, sometimes as part of the following recipe. It was contributed by Jimster several years ago, and is a great starting point for formulating your own insect sprays: INSECTICIDE: A U.S.D.A. formula combining oil and soap is effective in killing soft-bodied insects. Mix 1 cup peanut, safflower, corn, soybean, or sunflower oil with 1 tablespoon liquid dishwashing detergent. To make the spray, use 11/2 teaspoons of the oil-detergent mixture for each cup of water. As I mentioned above, I've tried several different variations of soap spray, sometimes with oil or alcohol. Since soap spray primarily works by blocking insect respiration, I even used sugar as an additive, when I was trying to kill cucumber beetles. Figured that would really clog their spiracles, and it seemed to help. Molasses might be even more effective, provided you can get it to dissolve. The advantage of using insecticidal soap (such as Safers) is that it is potassium based, and will cause less leaf damage. You can also use dish soap or baby shampoo, which is what I normally use. But in stronger concentrations (which may be required, depending upon what pest it will be applied to) there may be some leaf damage if the spray is allowed to remain on the leaves. Provided you are just targeting small areas, that is no big deal... but if spraying young plants, or covering a larger area (such as a squash bug infestation) then the spray should be washed off when it has done its work. Sucking insects die pretty quickly, you could rinse the leaves off after 15 minutes or so. For beetles, you just need to watch to see how effective the spray will be... it's possible a second spraying might be necessary. Beetle larvae are easier to kill than the adults, which can be remarkably resistant to soap spray... they will be temporarily paralyzed, but slowly recover. Cucumber beetles are a great example of this, they are pretty hard to kill. You really need full body coverage when spraying beetles, and a little alcohol in the mix will prevent them from flying away while you give them a good soaking. When trying out a soap spray the first time, observe its effect on the target insect. It's worth mentioning that while soap sprays have little to no no lingering toxic effect, they will kill most insects they are sprayed on. I've used the alcohol spray in my previous post to kill yellowjackets, it will knock them right out of the air. If bees or other beneficials get sprayed, it will kill them too.

The first reply from the Insect Forum: "It can be difficult to ID something from an image taken at an odd angle. I'm going to say that this is a nymph (youngster) of one of the katydid species, and then you can take it from there." from: rhizo_1 The insect I photographed does not appear to have the very long back legs like grasshoppers and katydids or I would have thought 'grasshopper from the start. I'm hoping to see another one to double check on whether this is the case or a quirk of my memory, plus take a better picture. Since I haven't noticed any damage I'm not killing it if I see it. I happen to enjoy seeing bugs in the garden -- other than thrips and flower beetles that is :-)

Sherry, I don't know whether we have sassafras anywhere nearby. I live in the city and while I know there are various types of native trees growing around town, I'd not be able to recognize Sassafras trees. When I was little, grandma would dig the roots and make winter tea from Sassafras, but I'd not know the plant on my own. I am just sick over this but I don't know what I can do right now to help them. I'll call around to the local nurseries as soon as they open and see if anyone has this plant but it's doubtful. Not many native plants are offered locally. I've just ordered 8 more spicebush plants and plan to take out a bed of Azaleas and plant them there. It is an understory bed and has auto sprinklers so it should be the perfect spot for them. I know it won't help the little guys that are out there now, but at least I'll be growing something helpful to the butterflies in that bed. I may have to use some of the new plants to replace those I have growing right now, as they are now just bare branches except for the tatters of nests. Poor little guys just barely covered with their bit of leaf nest that hasn't been eaten. Their little comical 'faces' poking out of the nest opening. It just breaks my heart. Thank you for the suggestion. If I thought I could recognize a sassafras tree, I'd go looking. Mary

Mike, sounds like you have a couple insects on your citrus..since there's also webbing, (unless the webbing is from a common spider) you may have mites and either mealy or white scale. The gooey substance is honeydew. The dew can attract ants..Honeydew is a secretion caused by scale. Mike, if it were my tree, I'd rid the self-watering pot..some ppl dote on these containers..I worked for a plant nursery where many trees that were shipped to us came in those pots..more often than not, plants had some type of bug..the reason is, soil never really has time to drain properly..constantly wet soil ='s bugs, including fungus gnats. Depending on the type of bugs you have, you'll have to keep an eye on your Lemon..and use more than one application.. Most ppl use rubbing alcohol, wipe off mealy/scale. This will work for a time, but you need to continue applications. I hope I'm wrong, but I've heard enough ppl complain when they dwelt w/insects. I use Fish Emulsion to rid scale..Do you have any available? If so, use 1 capful of FE to a 16oz mister spray bottle..spray entire tree, under leaves, stems, etc. Spraying w/plain water sometimes rids insects, including mites, but adding 2-4 drops of dish soap will help. Mealy is one insect I've never won a battle with..they're the worse. Hope your lemon doesn't have this creature. Again, most ppl use rubbing alcohol and either a Q-tip/cotton ball and wipe away mealybug. 2-3 applications is needed. Its leaves are yellowing because of pests.. Good luck, and keep us posted..Toni