Denise, I feel your pain and itching and swelling willies. It sounds like you are living in FL lol. The mosquitoes been awful down here lately, of course the mosquitoes always find me in a room full of people. I haven't seen much of aphids but occasional mealies. I am doing BATS every now and than just to keep in check. Good luck with getting rid of aphids.
Jan

The fastest way to get rid of aphids is to get some ladybugs. Place the ladybugs at the base of the infected plants and in no time they will be eating the aphids right before your eyes. After the aphids are gone they will turn to other pests as well and I have even seen them eating scale insects before.

I used to use systemic insecticides but I have switched to natural control methods because of the health implications for both myself and the environment. Insects reproduce very quickly and that means that in as little as a week you can have multiple generations. Because of this fast rate of reproduction you can run into problems with pesticide resistant populations as I learned the hard way a few years ago. Natural controls work very well even in my apartment but they are perfect for the greenhouse.

Mike

http://www.biobest.ca/

Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: Ladybugs

What a cooincidence - Here's a nice spider story-

Last night I was watering some plants on my back porch, which is enclosed and part of the inner house...out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge and ugly black spider moving fast across the tile...spiders scare the daylights out of me, I get the whole jolting physical reaction of increased heart rate etc...so I grabbed the only thing handy, a small bucket I was using to catch water under one of my hanging plants, and bashed the bottom of the bucket down on the spider - when I lifted the bucket there were DOZENS of little black things running for cover around the spider, at first I thought they were ants, and I was like "What the...???" but they were itty bitty baby spiders, the mama spider must have been carrying them on her back...shudder shudder...so I stomped on the ones I could as fast as I could. Then for a few seconds I felt kind of bad, you know, identifying with motherhood and all that...but I got over it real fast. All I had to do is think about her dropping those little babies off at all different points inside the house, and how they would grow up to be big and ugly like she was, and my guilt was gone. I know spiders do good things, like eat other bugs etc., but I doubt my wiping out this little family put a major dent in the spider population around here.

Yuk, it was so gross, I could barely sleep last night thinking about it.

ines, I love your spider story, it made me laugh but only because it wasn't me it happened to because I feel the same way about spiders.
Jo

Denise, there are Just Some Years!!! Argh, so sorry for your plight. I remember two years ago, I had a caterpiller that munched ALL of my carnosa and related variety blooms, down to the stubs. Very bad year for any type of photos, and only the second year I'd gotten blooms.

Southern California is having a real issue with widows. Like Mike, I work in the green, natural footprint as much as I can. But because I have a compromised immune system, I decided that the widows and me... not living in harmony.

I have demised over 63 widows (mostly brown widows, but a double handful of black widows since this time last year. And my chickens Won't Eat spiders! leaving me to do most of the work...) in my front and back yards. I've learned to move empty pots with gloves on, garden in closed toe shoes, and be very mindful of hidden areas, or 'up unders' that widows just love. I've set two flat bottom scoops out, and use those most, but some days I go out with two metal spatulas in my back pocket. Plus there is always that joy of something popping out of NOWHERE to get one's heart racing!!!

We didn't get the rain this year, so I didn't get to feed the chickens all the slugs, with snail snacks thrown in. They've kinda gone off of snails... Possibly because I Have So Many!!!

Yep, bugs, gotta love'em!

Ines,

That same thing happened to me a few years ago at work. A big ol' spider came running across the floor in the restroom and I pounced on it and out shot a bazillion little babies from under my foot!! I called it the "spider dance" and proceeded to walk around the rest of the day with the "sillies"...

Denise in Omaha

Cena, that sounds awful, but it is good you take precautions. I never knew there were black widows in New Jersey until my brother moved into a house in the pines that was infested with them. I also live in a heavily wooded piney area with lots of spiders, but no widows that I know of. Exterminators say that they sometimes get transported with lumber from the south. It doesn't matter, because all spiders are venomous. My mother was gardening last week and while weeding something bit her on the back of the hand, her whole hand swelled up and she said the pain was like the ache of a bruise...she went to the doctor, who said it was most likely a spider bite, and they took it very seriously and put her on an antibiotic, and told her to go to the ER if it got any worse that night or the next day. You don't want to mess around with spider bites. They can hang out in my yard all they want, but if I see them indoors, they are dead.

I had heard of spiders carrying their babies around, but always thought it was big exotic spiders in the jungle or in Australia or somewhere. At least somewhere OUTDOORS!! I didn't know our spiders around here did that, and not liking to know more than is necessary, I have not done too much spider research. Denise, your spider was inside too - It was bad enough dealing with that mama spider on the back porch, it it had been right inside the house, I probably would have moved out by now!! And, believe it or not, we just had the exterminator out last week, and he sprayed both indoors and out. I really should give him a call.

Hey Denise,

Speaking of bugs, could you pls. check under the leaves of the Cissus Quad you've shared w/ me? I found small clear balls (what I believe are eggs of some sort).

I've done the alcohol swab thing, isolated & a few days later I've Marathoned it. Thought that would be the end of it, & added in back among my plants. Today, I find more tiny clear balls, so I isolated it again & am going to do alcohol again. I don't recall any bugs surviving Marathon -- am surprised to say the least.

What are these pls. D -- I Googled Aphid Eggs & they don't look like that, I don't have much bug experience, so I don't know what they are (tho' I like this plant a lot).

I forgot to mention I grew this before, brought it back from my first trip to Jeff & San Diego (given me by one of his C&S friends). Very cool plant, put on new growth before it was anywhere near any mix. In its first year w/ me, one branch grew 14"!!! These you've just given me have added 9" of new growth!!!

Pls. be forewarned & consider isolating yours. If you know what these eggs are pls. let me know.

Karen,

Don't fret. I used to think there was something wrong with the plant when it got these little - uh - clear balls (don't know how else to describe them...) But it happens off and on with this plant. Never causes any damage. Never spreads to any other plants. I think it might be something comparable to the white salt crystals that Jades tend to "sweat" from their pores. BTW, I want to share that what I've learned from this plant is that you almost can NOT water it too much in summer. I'm growing both quadrangularis and cactiformis and I'm finding they dry out VERY fast. And if I water them as soon as they're dry, they grow like mad!!

Cena, I agree that people don't seem to understand how dangerous spiders can be. I don't want to scare anyone, because I know a lot of people appreciate the value of spiders. But here's a cause for pause... My brother, back in the early '80s, came down with a rare (REALLY rare) disease that the docs never really could say from where it came. Then, a couple year ago, I saw a show on Discovery about spiders, snakes and other venomous creatures that said that Brown Recluse Spider bites could cause this disease (called Pyoderma Gangrenosum.) He was living w/my dad in the country, in his basement when he contracted the disease. So be careful - very careful. And don't be shy about squashing the suckers!!

Denise in Omaha

I am oh so glad I don't live where you guys do... Spiders give me the complete willies and I will scream the house down given half a chance. Poisonous spiders would be even worse. I guess I should count myself lucky that there aren't any native poisonous spiders, although there are a few that seem to come in via the bananas (what a horrible thought!).
Bugs here don't seem to be too bad this year - I've noticed a lot of hoverflies around, which eat aphids as well. When their numbers are low, the aphids are just crazy. But the only plant that was outside (a rather pathetic rose that has grown and is flowering beautifully) was sprayed with BATS earlier this year (by me) and is now aphid-free. I have larger pest problems, with a FOX (or several) digging up my poor blueberry bush!!! and creating a rather large hole right at the back of my garden.

oh the banana comment reminded me of something that happened a few years ago with my ex - another spider story...

The ex loved grapes, so I always bought grapes, as I liked to make my ex's happy. The grapes in this story were red grapes, from Chile. They had been in the refrigerator at least for the day, and that night he dumped them in a bowl, was sitting on the couch next to me munching away, and suddenly let out this really weird sort of scream ( the ex didn't like spiders either ) and tossed what had been in his hand onto the coffee table - it was a black spider, about the size of a quarter, and very groggy from being chilled all day with the grapes in the refrigerator. Guess he reached into the bowl to pluck a grape and plucked the spider instead.

No more red grapes for me...I don't care what country they come from. Black spiders, brown spiders, all spiders will show up much better in a bunch of green grapes.

I love spiders, they eat wasps, yellow jackets, and ants. However they live outside, I live inside. On the other hand the only widow I let live is the one which made her web right in front of a wasp nest in the eaves of the porch.

Speaking of ants, I have ants inside my refridgerator! They found a way in through the door and love the cool of the fridge. No food is safe in my house! I guess I need to go out and water them because they come in looking for water, then nest in my plants. They killed my Xerosicyos danguyi by nesting in it this winter.