sounds like mites to me......

I would suggest this...

Garlic fire spray is the stuff of legend. There are many recipes, but they consist of some or all of the following: garlic, chilli peppers, soap, vegetable oil, kerosene and water. Don't leave home without a concoction of this. Depending on its strength it will slay dragons and ants (must have dragons if we mention legends)!

The brew I use at the moment is very effective and goes like this:

Â2-3 garlic bulbs (about 6-10 cloves per bulb)
Â6 large or 12 smaller hot chilli peppers (any variety will do, or if unavailable try 1-2 tablespoon hot chilli powder)
Â1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Â3 squirts of liquid detergent (approximately 1 dessertspoonful)
Â7 cups water. (Use about 2-3 cups in the blender, and top up with the rest later)
Put the whole lot into a blender and vitamize well, then strain through muslin, a coffee filter or similar. Pour what you need into a spray bottle for use and keep the rest in jars with lids on in a cupboard or on a shelf somewhere, well labeled.

Experiment with it if necessary and check for results or any damage to young plants. If it fixes the problem and your plants are happy, you've got the perfect mix, but if there's still a few biggie pests, albeit struggling, then lower the water dilution rate or change the ingredient quantities slightly.

Lovely garlicky, pongy stuff, but the smell dissipates quickly once it's been sprayed around. This garlic fire mixture needs to be re-sprayed frequently, such as after rain and dew. It's best to spray every few days until there's no sign of pests, then about every week to 10 days for any eggs or larvae that may have hatched out.

Uses for this natural garden pest control are unlimited. Because it has oil and dishwashing liquid in it, it sticks to plants as well as suffocating pests such as scale and mealy bug. It will kill ants, aphids, caterpillars, grubs, bugs and just about anything small. SO BE VERY SELECTIVE Â MIND THE LADYBUGS, LACEWINGS, BEES AND OTHER BENEFICIAL FRIENDS.

Spraying this mixture around the edge of your garden will deter pets. Rabbits, gophers, woodchucks and other garden gate crashers will also be discouraged.

bet it is spider mites. They are tiny and red. I would try the garlic thing.

Moni

Ezzirah,

If they are the size of the point of a needle or the point of a straight pin (or, say, the size of a 'period' here on this page), then I'd say Red Spider Mites, which are normally seen more often in the summer....but maybe this year's heat has brought them out early?

If they are the size of the head of a pin, then I'd say red aphids.

I've linked a photo of red aphids. Do they look like that?

In either case, usually taking your water hose and hitting them with a strong stream of water will knock them off the plants and encourage them to go elsewhere. If it is aphids, they often make a big appearance in early spring and then, if you are patient, lady bugs come along a week or two later and gobble them up. (Watch for the lady bug larvae---they are very helpful and gobble up tons of pest insects, but they don't look like ladybugs. They are gray and orange and look like tiny alligators.) If you don't have naturally-occurring lady bugs, you can buy a bag or small carton of them at some nurseries or garden centers. They are the best pest control solution in the world.

Since your pests are laying eggs, you need to get rid of those eggs or you'll have more pests. You can scrape them off the plant with a fingernail and drop them into a cup of soapy water and them dump the whole thing down the sink.

You could spray the plants with Neem Oil, but I normally just wait for the lady bugs to show up. They always show up about a day after I've finally decided they aren't going to show up after all.

If they don't look like aphids, they probably are red spider mites and we can talk about them if you decide that's what you have.

Aphids don't really bother me. If you have plants at all, there's a chance aphids will show up in early spring. Normally, as long as your plants are not overfed nitrogen, they are a minor problem and lady bugs will take care of them. They can carry and transmit plant diseases though. The worst thing you can do is run out and buy a chemical pesticide to treat them because that will also kill off the beneficial insects who normally keep pest insects under control. One thing to know about beneficial insects is that they do not show up until the pest insect reaches a high enough level to feed them. So, when you have enough aphids, for example, the Mama Ladybug believes there's enough food to sustain her young, she'll show up, lay eggs, and in a few days you'll have a whole platoon of aphid-eating lady bug larvae.) The people I know who always have the worst and most persistent pest problems are those who quickly grab a chemical and spray, so be patient and let Mother Nature send you some lady bugs to control the little pest bugs.

Please note that the aphids in the linked photo are not life-sized. In real life, they are smaller...about the size of the head of a pin.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful:...

I've seen places that sell lady bugs, but I was afraid that if I bought them they would just fly off to my neighbors yard. LOL.

Boomer Sooner,

They could and sometimes they do. To encourage them to stay around, be sure you have flowers and plants they like. Some gardening companies sell lady bug lures or sell seed mixes of plants that attract lady bugs and other beneficial insects. If the ladybugs are anywhere in your neighborhood, though, they'll show up a few days after the pest bugs do.

We have 14.5 acres and are in a very rural area with trillions of insects, and partly that's because we're in a semi-natural, mostly unspoiled area with the Red River to our west, south, and east. You'd think it would be impossibly hard to have a garden full of veggies, flowers and herbs (and fruit too), but it isn't. Why? Because I do absolutely everything in my power to encourage the beneficial insects like lady bugs, hover flies, parasitic wasps, green lacewings, tachinid flies, bees, dragonflies (the best predator insects in the world!) and more. (I don't encourage praying mantids though, as that turned out to be a huge mistake since they'll eat everything, including one another and all your beneficial insects.) I avoid the use of all sprays, chemical or organic in nature, that might harm or discourage them. Does it work? Absolutely.

I did go through a panic moment a few years ago when it seemed like almost all my beneficial insects had packed up and disappeared. It took me a while to realize that they left because they'd eaten all the pest insects they could find. Now, I'm not saying we're pest-free. I just saw red aphids on one of my Sugar Snap pea plants yesterday, but when the pests show up, the beneficials show up to take care of them for me. How perfectly wonderful is that?

I've linked a page from Planet Natural that shows an example of a lady bug food mix and lady bug lures. I don't know that the lady bug house is necessary, but I have a cute little one that is decorative even if the ladybugs don't really seem to live in it.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Ladybug Products at Planet Natural

One more thing about aphids, if you have aphids you likely also have ants around. Ants keep aphids in a manner similar to how people keep milk cows. Aphids secrete a sweet, sticky substance ants use for food. Ants will also defend aphids against ladybug attacks if they are nearby. It might help to find something you can use to create an organic barrier around your garden to help keep the ants away. It will certainly help the ladybugs gobble the aphids without so much interference from the ants.

Debra

Dawn - those darn things were so small, I could barely see them. but they were close to that, so I am going to go with a yes, those were it.

Thanks for the recipe, I am going to have to try that and see if it works

Ezzirah,

If they were so small you could hardly see them, they might be red spider mites and not aphids. Take a sheet of white paper outside and hold it under a plant that has them on it. Thump the plant so that some of the little red pests fall onto it. Watch them move. If they are spider mites, it will literally look like the dot over the lower case "i" is moving around on the sheet of paper. If it is anything bigger than that, it is aphids. I'd be surprised to see red spider mites in April, but I know I have seen them in May if it was a hot, dry May.

The exception might be if you purchased plants that already had the mites on them and brought the mites home from a nursery or garden center. Once in the garden, they'd likely find peas very attractive.

Yesterday I saw my first aphid. Today I saw the first ladybug, so I'm hoping Ms. Ladybug will lay some eggs on the peas and her children will gobble up the aphids.

Dawn