It still blooms. Is this worrisome or can I ignore?

by angeljam

8 Comments

  1. brucewayneaustin

    aphids… they love hibiscus plants!

    edit: do not ignore as they will destroy all of your flower buds and they’ll just fall off.

  2. Lightningstruckagain

    Aphids. Hose them off or wipe by hand. Sometimes Insecticidal soap works for me. Never had any luck with Neem Oil.

  3. MonoBlancoATX

    As others have said, aphids.

    Looks like a lot too.

    Neem oil and soap works well, so does insecticidal soap, and so does high pressure water.

    You can also put on some gloves and smoosh most of them, but that doesn’t prevent them coming back.

  4. Salt-Operation

    Everyone is saying aphids, but i see a mealy bug too.

  5. juliejetson

    I pick them off and squish into a paper towel. Repeat until the infestation clears. Neem oil and insecticidal soap hurt other beneficial bugs.

  6. redditerla

    Mealy bugs.

    The typical suggestions like neem oil, water pressure, and soap water have never worked for me.

    The thing that worked for me was manually killing them by hand. Dedicate a time block, grab some disposable latex gloves and manually run your fingers through the stems and leaves with enough pressure to squish them. Once you do make sure to remove and replace the mulch surrounding the plants and then treat the area for nearby ants. Ant management is one of the more effective thing you can do to reduce the chances of future infestations. Ants like to farm mealy bugs like cattle so they will often move them around, they also “milk them” by extracting honeydew from them (which mealy bugs produce), and protect them.

  7. austinteddy3

    Use insecticidal soap on them. Not indirect sunlight though. Give it a day and then you can lightly spray them off cause they’ll all be dead. Get after it now though they will destroy that plant. Don’t use neem oil!

  8. frustrated_crab

    Blast them mfers with your garden hose, send them back to hell where they belong

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