scale insect

Confession time.

Are you ready?

I’ve got some mad skills but they have little to do with gardening. I excel at raising insects and bugs. Not to toot my own horn, but I think I might qualify for ‘Top Incubator of Garden Pests.’

Don’t believe me? Come take a look:

After chatting you up about my gorgeous coleus, and my plans to take cuttings for next year, I found this:

Spider Mites or Whitefly?

I’m not sure if I have whiteflies or spider mites or both, but boy are they prolific. While watering the plant this evening, I removed a large, partially eaten leaf. When I turned it over, I could see that a small family had moved in. In just a week’s time, they spread to half of the plant’s leaves and part of the soil. Damn I’m good!

Next up, aphids. Why settle for a hundred aphids when a gazillion will do? The more the merrier, I always say. I noticed a bit of ‘black soot’ on the stems of my soon to bloom Allium, but I just walked right on by. Might as well let the aphids settle in first.

Aphids

By the time I made it to the garden center for a batch of ladybugs, the party was well under way. The ladybugs arrive in a container saying pre-fed. Huh? I guess all that good aphid food will just go to waste.

Aphids, and the ladybugs that love them

Saving the best for last, will you take a look at that Scale? I diligently removed all traces of scale earlier in the year while the tree was dormant. I manually scraped the scale into a bucket, then went back over the young branches with warm soap and water. I run a tight ship here. I cleaned those branches top to bottom to get the tree ready for the new residents. They moved in early this summer, and show no signs of leaving. In fact, it looks like they’ve invited a few guests.