|
Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Aug 27, 2019 22:17:39 GMT -5
tom 🕊 , I want to make sure I don't plant a mite magnet, and based on your experience, can warn others, especially my gardening niece. I'm going to try other searches, something like plants that attract mites. What's its bloom cycle in your area? Is it tall, short, wide, bushy? Type of flower? Anything else you can offer to describe it? Alternatively, are there other flowers that are similar? That would help narrow down its grown pattern.
Found some red spider mites. Do the ones you've seen look anything like these?
pestkill.org/insect/mites/spider-mite/red/
|
|
|
Post by tom 🕊 on Aug 28, 2019 7:11:40 GMT -5
Do the ones you've seen look anything like these? The red insects on the flower pictured are not spider mites. Spider mites are so small that most people never see one. Here, we have red spider mites and two-spotted spider mites. The two-spotted are worse. Among flowers, lantana is especially susceptible to spider mites. Spider mites cannot be avoided. They blow through the air like fine dust. Spider mites are not the same as red bugs (chiggers). I know of no yard plant that attracts red bugs. Red bug flowers grow in wet soil in open places in the woods. Petals are orange-red, and the stem is succulent. They are not yard plants.
|
|
|
Post by gardendmpls on Aug 28, 2019 7:30:47 GMT -5
This is why scientific names are useful. Red bug flower is just a plant red bugs like to hang out on, but what is a red bug? Different places use different names for the same bugs. When I first saw JB used here, my first thought was June beetle, not Japanese.
Although the photos of the annoying insects show six legs, they have the appearance of mites or small ticks and it could just be the angle obstructing the view of the legs. If they truly have six legs, my first thought would be crab lice, which you would not get from woodland plants, but you could get while lying on woodland plants, hopefully not if your hiking partner is your wife.
|
|
|
Post by tom 🕊 on Aug 28, 2019 10:18:59 GMT -5
This is why scientific names are useful. But in my experience scientific plant names can be difficult to use. There is a disconnection between them and ordinary experience. Scientific names are based on close examination under special conditions. Plants are now being renamed based on genetics (I think that is what is happening) so there are duplicate scientific names for the same plant. Polygonum orientale (I can see it out the window) is now Persicaria orientalis. An example of the problem with scientific names, I think, is ecsoehng 's mystery plant. organicgroup.freeforums.net/thread/3578/plantNo one has been able to find its scientific name even though there is a picture of the plant. And who is going to say Trombiculidae instead of chiggers, chigoes, or red bugs?
|
|
|
Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Aug 28, 2019 11:35:50 GMT -5
tom 🕊 , there's also the possibility that this is/was a volunteer which arrived on some foreign goods or in a cargo ship, long ago perhaps, and naturalized itself into your climate. That's certainly been the case with non native species that are causing havoc breeding uncontrollably.
|
|
|
Post by tom 🕊 on Aug 28, 2019 19:12:45 GMT -5
there's also the possibility that this is/was a volunteer which arrived on some foreign goods or in a cargo ship, long ago perhaps, and naturalized itself into your climate. Queen Anne's lace is a naturalized plant that is said to be a host for chiggers. At one time there was some it the yard, but I never had any problem with it. I'd like to have some more because I've learned that it is a food source for parasitic wasps.
|
|
|
Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Aug 28, 2019 21:16:33 GMT -5
tom 🕊 , I don't have any Queen Anne's Lace but I love the plant for its lacy flowers. To me they're so typical of the whimsy and soft winds of light summer days.
|
|
|
Post by tom 🕊 on Aug 29, 2019 6:36:16 GMT -5
I don't have any Queen Anne's Lace but I love the plant for its lacy flowers. To me they're so typical of the whimsy and soft winds of light summer days. Queen Anne's lace flowers are used in framed pressed flower pictures and other craft work. This was a Victorian development, I suppose.
|
|
|
Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Aug 29, 2019 15:02:21 GMT -5
tom 🕊, I've also seen them used in wreaths. That would be one of my applications. They're also models for embroidery work.
|
|
|
Post by Wheelgarden on Aug 29, 2019 15:46:37 GMT -5
Queen Anne's lace is a naturalized plant that is said to be a host for chiggers. The old folks in my youth used to call them "chigger flowers". Queen Anne's gets an undeserved bad rap, in my opinion. They are absolutely everywhere in my area. They do attract beneficials, and they have their place in natural landscaping.
|
|
|
Post by pepperhead212 on Aug 31, 2019 22:46:17 GMT -5
I now know the crickets are out there - I can hear them! For some reason, I have seen very few this summer - usually in late July or early August I begin seeing them under every single thing that I move! I wonder why it took them so long this year?
|
|
|
Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Sept 1, 2019 10:40:07 GMT -5
pepperhead212 , I first heard them last week, or perhaps the week before. But so far, only one has been presumptious enough to come inside. I heard it a few nights ago, one of those chilly nights. It was down in the basement chirping its little heart out (if crickets have hearts). Actually it was kind of neat - it had a strong, lovely voice, and the basement seemed less like a basement where stuff is stored and rather like a home to a little insect coming in from the cold.
|
|
|
Post by tom 🕊 on Sept 1, 2019 11:11:13 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by lisaann on Sept 1, 2019 13:35:30 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by datgirl on Sept 30, 2019 19:34:03 GMT -5
I have a stink bug invasion. They are so bad this year. I don't want to spray anything because we have bee hives and the bees are still active on my fall Asters. We were out there spraying them with soapy water until they fall then bag them up. I saw someone made a trap for them with a pop bottle and a light. Might try it. Any other ideas???
|
|