EasyBloom Forum

My chicken gizzard Aralia has a colony of insects on it. They are mostly on the new growth. All over the leaves and stems. Green bumps then they turn to white tiny flies. I never seem to see them move. I see the dead ones on the floor and window sill. There also seems to be a sticky substance on the leaves. What is this and how do I get rid of it? I have tried systemic granules and Pyola insect spray but did not seem to even penetrate at all.

Hey Elayna...Sounds to me like you have aphids and possibly white flies. When I see the words "green bumps" put together, I think aphids, but it could also be scale. Anyhoo, if you do have aphids you can make your pesticide that won't be too harmful to you or the plant. You can mix 3 ingredients that you likely have at home already: rubbing alcohol, dishwasher soap and warm water. There are many recipes that call for different amounts of each ingredient, and I don't have one preference over the other really. I would do an internet search to find the correct concentrations. Sometimes you will see a 50:50 dilution of the alcohol with a couple of teaspoons of dishwasher soap, but many may say that is too strong. In reality, I think you can come up with a fine mixture following a standard recipe online.

As for the whitefly, you can use the same exact homemade spray for the whitefly. Unfortunately, the pest that you see is only the adult stage of this insect. The larval stage is found in the soil. You can either let the soil dry out a bit more often (this may reduce the population of larvae slightly), or you can get a pesticide drench. A drench works by including it into the water you would normally use when you water your Aralia. You can either find a strictly chemical pesticide for the drench or you can purchase a microbial "pesticide". You can purchase a bacterial slurry of Bacillus thuringensis (more commonly known as BT) to drench the soil with. BT produces a protein that it will exude, which when eaten by some insects will bind to proteins inside their midguts and essentially prevents the insect from absorbing any nutrients. This protein that is produced by BT does not have a toxic effect on humans or pets. In fact BT is used as an organic pesticide.

Now...as for the that sticky stuff you are seeing on the leaves, that is called honeydew. Honeydew is, to use the scientific nomenclature, these pests' poop. :) They suck the sugars from the plant, but cannot digest all of the sugar so they excrete the excess out. It can simply be washed away with water. One thing you should keep in mind is that since honeydew is basically sugar, honeydew can promote fungal growth on your leaves. If you already have fungal growth on the leaves, not to worry. The fungus is not attacking your plant as much as it is eating that sugar.

I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have anymore questions. Cheers...Dr. Robby