You need to buy something to spray these plants with asap. Those peonies will probably return next year even if something does whack them off to the ground though. Those are pretty resilient plants. It might not bloom well though if whacked off so early. Spray your plants. That garden safe spray will kill most any insect on contact. I feel your pain. Something broke my new weigela off to the ground yesterday!

Thank you. I will go out today and find something to spray it down with. We have had so much rain here. It was a typhoon a few moments ago. At least the new plants are getting plenty of water. Although I had a dahlia in a container that wasn't draining quuickly enough and I think it has drowned. I am trying to bring it back to life.

You really should identify your pests, or your problem, before you start randomly spraying.

Julianne...

Sorry to hear you are having pest problems. It is always something, isn't it? Since you are a new gardener, you might want to explore some organic gardening practices to help yourself get started on the right foot. I know there is an organic gardening forum on GW and I have had a lot of help over the years from people there in trying to address a pest or disease problem in a safe way. Safe for you and to the ecology of your garden, which then will not be out of balance and create more problems in the long run.

I am sure there is a home made spray you can make with garlic etc. There are recipes over on Organic Gardening.

:-)
pm2

Julianne,

I think that Garden Safe product is ok. I've never gotten sick from it or had any plant die from using it. If you want to make up some garlic potion, let me know if that works for you. I'll be interested to hear which works best. Try spraying one plant with the product I recommended and 1 with the garlic spray they recommend and let me know which one works the best for you.

The problem with just spraying stuff is that it kills the bugs that eat the bad buds as well as the bad bugs. Aphids and spider mites in particular are rarely problems unless the good bugs have been nuked.

Plants aren't all that easy to kill. Give them a chance.

I use the Garden Safe insect spray all the time and have never had a problem with Aphids or Spider Mites. I've never seen it kill a butterfly or bee either. Just focus on spraying the leaves and stem and underneath the leaves. The butterflies and bees stay on the blooms. I see ladybugs and bees and butterflies all the time. In fact, we have many so many bees it's shocking!

Here is a link to the product I've been using. You can get this at Wal-mart cheaper. This stuff works!

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Safe 3 in 1

The active ingredient in the product is Neem oil. When applied correctly, it can be used quite safely around non-target insects. It works when the pest critters ingest it, so that means the plant eating pests. But could have some adverse effects, when wet, to others as well. It also has some fungicidal properties.

julianne, since you are a new gardener, would it be possible for you to catch a few of these insects and take some pictures? It's extremely helpful to know exactly what you're up against, and we can help you with that.

Also, please remember that the more you use hard chemical pesticides (I don't include neem in that list), the more you will HAVE to use them. A balanced (from the root system up) garden will tolerate a few pests.

julianne75, I hope you sprayed them. If I hadn't used that stuff on those slugs my plants would be totally gone by now!

Thank you for overwhelming reponses. I will get the garden safe tomorrow and will try to get a few photos before I do as well. I wanted to do some research first and well I am a single mom of 3, and it can get pretty hectic around here. I have found gardeing to be a peaceful respite from all the chaos. There are two critters I can't figure out what they are. They look similar in there coloring. One is about 1/2 inch long gray with horizontal dark grey/black stripes and spots sorted of muttled coloring (I guess) the others are the same coloring but small rounder kind of beetle like. I only saw one of the first but several of the latter both were on the undersides of the leaves of my peony. They didn't move or jump when I was inspecting them, they kind of have a prehistoric look to them. I don't know. To walmart in the morning...

Here's your followup with pictures.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/peren/msg0600595414976.html?5

As is noted there, you lack any sort of infestation. You don't have mites nor other nasties.

But as observed by several folks, you need to relax and enjoy your garden.

What you are experiencing is the great outdoors and its creatures, few of them damaging to your plants even if the critters are sitting right there.

Here is a link that might be useful: your followup w/pix