Hey,I don't know where you live,but my morning glories are COVERED in aphids. Never had this problem before with Morning Glories,but used to aphids on vege's and roses. I guess I will wash them off with soap and water. But the leaves are yellowy and splotchy too. What's up? Jardinista

Bayer makes a combination fertilizer and systemic insecticide for annuals and perennials that I have found to be quite effective. Scratch the granules in per directions, water, and wait and the problem critters go away. An alternitave is to spray regularly with a permethrin based insecticide for a week or so.

Jardinista, I live in Hamilton. Thanks for the reply. Sorry you're having this problem too.

Sconticut, those sound like good suggestions. I'll look into the permethrin. I have dozens of Morning Glories. The thought of washing every leave is daunting.

Our morning glory leaves are riddled with holes as well ... and the culprits in our case are golden tortoise beetles. Really neat things, actually -- but they love anything in the potato family (which morning glories are!) Look carefully and you might see them if they're your problem -- they look just like ladybugs that have been gilded with liquid gold. And they eat perfect little round holes in the leaves.

I'm not sure they do any significant harm -- mostly cosmetic I gather -- so that might affect your decision about control. We'd never seen them before this year. They are stunning... but they do drill those holes!

Here is a link that might be useful: Anything like this on the undersides of leaves?

Love the BugGuide.net link - thanks, ctlady.

To: ctlady
Your are right on the money when you tagged the golden tortoise beetle with the morning glory damage. I call them the Edgar Allen Poe bugs. They also love scarlet runner beans, cardinal flowers, and lots of other things. I dislike using a systemic poison but Neem Oil and Permethrin based sprays require almost hourly vigilance to hit the little critters. Eventually, the morning glories pull up their genetic botanical britches
and survive even without any treatment. We discovered this after returning from a June vacation some years ago.