the legs look like wasp legs..but i obviously don't know that many bugs from your area. i couldn't believe that ladybugs can look like that!!

carol

I think this is the in-between stage Khalid...Larvae -to - Ladybird stage...very exciting...you have many different colored Ladybirds...and Lacewings...I don't even have one Lacewing here.

Would that be because of too many people having used too many poisons for too long?

and a very lovely orange fly...we don't have them here..

Jess and Carol: My knowledge about insects is quite poor and I am not sure it is a ladybug or something else. Might be a pupa of ladybug.... I have no clue.

At this moment it is raining cats and dogs outside and I fear most ladybirds will be blown away. I hope I am wrong.

There are a lot of species of Lady Beetles.

we get a lot of lacewings here.

can't seem to find a picture though.

here's a hiding crab spider

here's our two spotted ladybug. i think there's a 5 or 6 spotted one. but the two spotted one is the one seen 99% of the time.

Carol: Thanks for posting these pics. Two spotted ladybug looks beautiful.

Here is the firs red ladybug with black spots that I saw in my garden. Welcome.....Isn't he cute... and he is quite big too as compared to other ladybugs. May be its a Mama bug searching place to lay eggs. I am surprised how she survived last nights torrid rain.

This is the beige or deep yellow one with black lines... no dots. So till now, I have spotted 4 different kind of ladybugs in my garden. Most common initially were yellow ones with black dots. Don't see them anymore. Then these beige with black lines, red with black dots and a suspected black with red and yellow dots

This fly is very common on my roses. Is it beneficial? Any idea what does it do?

And then there are ants. These are flying ants and they just keep flying from rose to rose. I suspect they kill ladybug larvae. And of course there are ants climbing up the roses from the bed or pots. What to do with these ants. They come and protect aphids. I think I will find answer in Jess's thread. She faced this problem too some time back.

This is Gertrude Jekyll. Only one leave is curled like this so no worries but just wanted to know what it is. Any idea?
best regards

I love that Burgundy rose Carol... what is it called? so beautiful...and a great photo with the spider hiding underneath the petal...

and such a pretty red Ladybird! :-)))

You are fortunate to get rain Khalid, don't worry the Ladybirds have ways and means to survive...they have hiding places we don't know about...soon I will be trying to create a winter insect motel....I wonder why I don't have any Lacewings here?

Jess: Calendula attracts green lacewings .. and it's VERY drought-tolerant perennial, can withstand extremely hot temp, as well as cold frost. Plus the flowers are edible. Below is yellow Calendula clump intermingled with pink geranium in my garden. The leaf is tender like salad (edible), upper right corner is Marie Pavie's white rose. The lacy deep pink flowers on lowest right (next to cement) is alyssum.

Straw: Thanks for info on Calendula. They are very common here.

Thank you Straw, I am so glad you reminded me in time to order Calendula...I planted a few seeds, waiting for them to start growing...I will again plant more at the end of winter.... and hoping all the Lacewings haven't been killed by over-poisoning in this area...your flowers are so pretty...we don't get that lovely pink Alyssum over here...only purple and white...

jess - that's night owl. here's a young version of night owl.

here's a bumblebee going in for a landing on night owl.

don't you just love daisies!!

carol

I wish we could get Night Owl over here...there are so many roses we don't get here and that is such a beautiful rose thank you for sharing these photo's Carol. I can't ever take a photo of these fast moving Bumble bees, when they see me coming with the camera they fly away...and yes Daisies are beautiful but these are spectacular! what are these Daisies called Carol?

i looked on line for about 30 minutes, and was about to give up hope, then i remembered that i have a box of old labels.

it's called Silver Spoons Shasta Daisy. i knew it was a shasta daisy, but i'm glad i found the variety name. zone 4, yet it always survives our zone 3.

carol

Carol: very pretty Night Owl and Shasta Daisy .. use to have those daisy, until my trees get too big & blocked out sun.

Khalid: didn't see your post until now. That big yellow "fly" looks like a wasp. Wasp eat rose-slugs, so I like them in my garden. Wasp also eat termites, flies, and caterpillar. Leaf-curl is typical of copper-deficiency, induced by too much calcium. Wood-ash has plenty of calcium besides potassium. But your curled-leaves look like LOCALIZED insect-damage, rather than nutritional imbalance.

" Aphids, thrips, raspberry horntail larvae and scales are of particular concern, because their damage causes leaves to curl. Most rose pests are tiny with thrips no more than 1/20 inch, aphids 1/8 inch or less and scales up to 1/4 inch in their adult size. Raspberry horntail larvae are the largest of the four at 1 inch. The insects feed in different ways. Aphids, for example, feast on the underside of leaves, while the larvae of raspberry horntails weave their way through the stems. Tiny black dots and white lesions often indicate a thrip infestation, while clusters of immobile dots with winged insects spread throughout usually point toward a scale problem. Aphids, scales and thrips all succumb to horticultural oils. "

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/roses-curling-leaves-32902.html

i didn't see khalid's post until now either.

yes, that's a wasp. definitely good.

i like the red ladybugs better. they're so cheerful looking! we don't have flying ants here, as far as i know.

Straw wrote: "Khalid: didn't see your post until now. That big yellow "fly" looks like a wasp. Wasp eat rose-slugs, so I like them in my garden. Wasp also eat termites, flies, and caterpillar. Leaf-curl is typical of copper-deficiency, induced by too much calcium. Wood-ash has plenty of calcium besides potassium. But your curled-leaves look like LOCALIZED insect-damage, rather than nutritional imbalance.

" Aphids, thrips, raspberry horntail larvae and scales are of particular concern, because their damage causes leaves to curl. Most rose pests are tiny with thrips no more than 1/20 inch, aphids 1/8 inch or less and scales up to 1/4 inch in their adult size. Raspberry horntail larvae are the largest of the four at 1 inch. The insects feed in different ways. Aphids, for example, feast on the underside of leaves, while the larvae of raspberry horntails weave their way through the stems. Tiny black dots and white lesions often indicate a thrip infestation, while clusters of immobile dots with winged insects spread throughout usually point toward a scale problem.Aphids, scales and thrips all succumb to horticultural oils. "

Thanks for the info Straw. Very helpful. I haven't been able to take a good photo of the yellow fly but it is not wasp in my view. We have many of them here and this one is much smaller than wasps, though same colour but a different shape slightly. I haven't seen wasps so far this year... may be its raining too much and it is still cold for wasps. They are more active when it warm and dry. But then there are many types of wasps and I don't know about many of them.

Jess: I agree, red ladybugs are most colourful and I was delighted to see them around. But it's again raining today and I don't see any insects. Rains have also washed away all aphids and that might be another reason that ladybugs are not there. There were more ladybugs when there were more aphids.

And what to do with these flying ants?? The can reach anywhere... I will be spreading crushed garlic around the stems of my bushes to discourage ants to climb the bushes but what can I do to flying ants? I don't want to spray with tobacco water or neem oil because that will kill ladybugs too.

Just after the rain today, got a chance to take few snaps of the insects hovering around... most photos do not have a proper focus but is hard to take such closeup without a stand and I had camera in my hand (which would always move). So bear with it...

This is the light peach ladybird with black lines that go in continuation on whole body. Doesn't have dots. Isn't he cute.

These are yellow ones with black dots. This guy, just after rain, is searching for food or probably an appropriate place to lay eggs.

This big guy was sitting on one of the leaves. Looks similar to a honey bee

This looks like a small honey bee. Honey produced by small bees is very expensive here.... three times the price of honey produced by normal large size bees.

Flies shown in the last three pics.... are they also beneficial??

best regards

This is the first time I saw a black ladybug in my house. It was resting on Augusta Luise..

He looked so beautiful.

Love those colored- lady bugs, esp. the peach one !! I never see those colored flies before, they are so neat. You are right about the smaller-size wasp-looking one, we get those around rose bush. I see ZERO THRIPS afterwards, and ZERO slugs after those "small wasp" visit rose-bush, so those "small wasp" are beneficial. We also get much bigger wasp, called hornet which have HUGE nest. Hornet are nasty, they bite my entire family.

Yes... hornet is the name. They are here in abundance but during winters and spring, they are harmless. Even if they bite, there is no sting. But as it gets warmer, their sting starts getting venomous. In hot summers when the temp are over 100*F, their sting is quite painful and one gets swelling immediately. And during autumn, as the temps go down, they become harmless again. Such is the way of nature. I don't know the reason but I know what to do. God said: " reflect on such things (on nature) as in these things, there are signs of wisdom for those who REFLECT."

best regards

a black ldaybug! i had no idea. how neat!!

carol

And here are few more good guys.....

It's hard to take the photos of insects, hard to focus on such small objects without a proper macro lens and without stand. So bear with it if you don't find the photos well focused.

I was trying to capture this jumpy guy since many days. The moment I keep the camera close, which I have to, it jumps away. But there were aphids on this Augusta Luise bush and very few of them there.... I haven't seen this guy devouring them but I am quite convinced that he does. Has a strange elongated sort of a crown on the head.

These flys are in big number. Don't stay at one place for long and keep flying from leave to leave and bush to bush. They were less in number when I was regularly spraying tobacco water to kill aphids. But since last 25 days, I stopped spraying anything (learnt from Jess) and since then, there is a visible increase in these flies. Or may be it wasn't there prime season then.

I haven't seen them devouring aphids either but I see a leaf covered with small aphids one day and next day.... the leave is almost clean. I am quite certain that these flies also have something to do with it. They are in far bigger numbers compared to ladybugs. I would roughly say that for each single ladybug, there might be 20 flies like these. If you look closely at their mouth, they have a claw like thing coming out of the mouth which is mostly there in predatory insects.

And look at this cute little fella. A spider can't be vegetarian for sure.... he must be devouring pests at will but I am not sure he would making any distinction in pests and larvae of beneficials...

I am enjoying being with them and I am also learning how easy (AND CHEAP) it is if the do things natural way But if we all go organic and natural, who would buy these pesticides and fungicides and bla bla bla.

best regards

Khalid: Fantastic photo of those yellowish-fly, yes, they got rid of my thrips and rose slugs as well. Same with Japanese Beetles, I feed the birds, and the birds devour Jap. Beetles. You have a good camera !!

Thanks for giving another nice idea, Straw. I will also feed the birds spreading some grains in the corner in the lawn. I wonder Hardy (my dog) would allow them to sit and eat in peace. Normally he doesn't allow any crows in the lawn but haven't seen him chasing any small birds yet. But I will try to find a way....

Saw this guy on the McCartney bush today.... Is it a white coloured ladybird? Never seen one like this before

I guess it might be a mutated ladybug!!

sure looks like one - how strange!!

i looked on line, and it said that there are white ladybugs!! i didn't find a picture of one that was that extreme of a white.

amazing!!! what a rare photo!!

carol

Khalid: that photo is precious, an albino, or white ladybug .. WOW !! We once saw albino deer in Michigan, that's very rare.

ATTENTION STRAW

Immediate help needed. Powdery mildew is spreading in my roses. The leaves are getting white powdery stuff and it is there on buds also. It is still not dangerous but its there on at least 10 bushes and all of them are in the same area. It started from the French Lace bush in the ground and then spread to nearby pots. I sprayed within one table spoon of baking soda in 1 liter water in the morning but not much affect. Now, at sunset time, I have applied the same solution with the help of a wet cloth on the infected leaves.

Please suggest any remedial measures.

best regards

Spray pure 100% full fat milk Khalid...(I remember this from advice given by Straw in a much older thread)

no need to rub it off afterwards..... it starts working immediately....

spray early in the morning if possible so that it has all day to dry. that works for me...

I think it works like homeopathy - like - cures - like...

wow that white Ladybird is so beautiful.... I checked and yes you get white one's but with more pronounced black spots, this one is very rare indeed... stunning photo!

please check underneath the leaves and blooms for Ladybirds and their larvae and other beneficials as well - before spraying with milk Khalid....milk kills all soft-bodied insects.

Thanks a lot Jess. Will try the milk recipe tomorrow.

Best regards

I forgot to mention this, but every time I miss giving a rose water, and it starts raining, that rose will start getting mildew. not the roses that were well watered, ever....

I also noticed something - Straw mentioned this in another thread, - roses in full sun are more disease prone... and it is true for my roses as well... roses in my garden with full sun need to be pampered all the time...

Jess wrote: 'I also noticed something - Straw mentioned this in another thread, - roses in full sun are more disease prone... and it is true for my roses as well... roses in my garden with full sun need to be pampered all the time..."

This is an important information Jess. What could be the reason for this? Apparently roses in shade should be getting more diseases!!

Haven't been able to try the milk recipe yet. Swiped infected leaves of few bushes with baking soda solution.... It seems to come under control at one place but starts on other bushes / leaves. Doesn't seem to be going away from my garden.

What should I do?

best regards

Khalid: When the soil is too acidic, roses break out in mildew. I made 2 mistakes that confirm that: One year I put too much ACID fertilizer (with sulfur) plus SALTY chemical nitrogen on Mary Magdalene .. it broke out in mildew. I had to give it my ALKALINE tap water (pH 8.6, baking soda is just a bit more alkaline). I squirt that ALKALINE tap water on the foliage, plus SCRAPE OFF the acid-fertilizer, then the mildew was gone. My tap-water is high in calcium, and calcium is known to de-salt saline soil.

SALT and ACID is the perfect recipe for mildew. If you get too much rain at pH 5.6, that will bring the pH down. If you use too much wood-ash ... that has salt. I did experiment with vinegar one summer, that brought down the pH too much .. thus I won't use vinegar, except to kill trees.

The second time I mixed crack corn (pH 4) into potting soil .. then I top with SALTY Milorganite (sewage sludge), and got the worse mildew on Jude the Obscure .. other pots WITHOUT cracked corn (pH 4), but with Milorganite DID NOT have mildew.

The next year I got smarter, and topped my pots with pea-gravel (pH 9 with calcium & other minerals from river-bed) during heavy rain, and zero mildew. See pic. of pea-gravel below:

Baking soda works since it raises the pH to above 8, same with Jess' observation that if she waters her roses before the rain, it helps with mildew .. tap water are alkaline, above pH 7.5, compared to ACIDIC rain water at pH 5.6. The only drawback of baking soda is the salt, that's why Green cure, or potassium bicarbonate works, to supply potassium, and raise the pH level.

If you google "milk and mildew" .. it's proven to work, due to the many bacteria that flourish in milk, once it's soured or spoiled. Bacteria competes with mildew fungi. Milk gets stinky, thanks to the bacteria population. There are 2 types of bacteria population: the good types which ferments yogurt, and the bad types which make spoiled milk stinky .... both types suppress fungi such as mildew.

http://www.gardenguides.com/779-using-milk-control-powdery-mildew-garden-pest-tip.html

Straw: That's great info on spread of fungus. Thanks for the help.

So, wood ash and baking soda both are not to be used because they contains salt and despite both of them being alkaline, they still enhance fungus growth because of salt content. Rain water is acidic and that's understandable that it increases fungus growth. So all three of them are not to be used.

You recommended Potassium bicarbonate. what dosage is recommended to be used with plants in pots and plants in beds? I wan't to avoid using milk as it will bring too many flies to the house.

I have been using gypsum as well as sulfate of potash in past one month or so and during rains, I used quite a bit of it as I thought it would be drained and will go well into the soil. Does it also have something to do with the fungus?

best regards

Straw: Mildew doesn't seem to be getting under control and now I see it spreading. I haven't sprayed milk yet. If both wood ash as well as baking soda are not to be used due to high salt content and milk attracts too many flies in the house (wife will object to it) than is there any other organic solution. How can I just raise the pH level a little without adding salt to the soil?

best regards

Jess recommended another effective way for mildew: dust the affected leaves with corn-meal. Corn has acidic pH at 4, which kills fungus upon contact. Either too alkaline like baking soda (pH 8.5 to 9) , or too acidic like corn (pH 4) kill fungus upon contact.

Wood-ash is MUCH higher in calcium than potassium, with 20% to 25% calcium which raises the pH. You are right in the other thread about UP the calcium, DOWN the potassium (soil studies stated the same). Also during rain or watering of pots, more potassium is leached than calcium. Nitrogen mobility is a 10, potassium mobility is a 3, versus less mobility for calcium and phosphorus.

Apply sulfate of potash at root level will correct the too-much calcium. Remember that the ideal NPK for roses is EQUAL AMOUNT OF NITROGEN TO POTASSIUM, 1/2 calcium, and 1/10 phosphorus. See below link which stated that wood-ash has only 4% potassium, and 20% calcium. The other link stated that wood-ash has 25% calcium.

https://extension.umaine.edu/publications/2279e/

Thanks Straw. Last night when it was raining whole night, I sprinkled wood ash on the affected bushes. In the morning much of it had been washed away with rain but I could see some deterioration in fungus. By evening it was even better. Will see it tomorrow and report.

Tomrrow I will also give some sulfate of potash to my bushes tomorrow. What I had been doing previously was mixing four table spoons of potash in a bucket of water (15 liters) and watering the pots and beds with that. What do you recommend? Should I do the same?

And how do you use baking soda? I have been spraying the bushes with 1 teaspoon in 1 liter of water.

best regards

Khalid I re-read this thread now and only now saw this post: And then there are ants. These are flying ants and they just keep flying from rose to rose. I suspect they kill ladybug larvae. And of course there are ants climbing up the roses from the bed or pots. What to do with these ants. They come and protect aphids.

Flying ants...wow, never seen those...

....I used wood ash to get rid of ants by sprinkling it on the soil where their entrances were and they moved, do you see any ant-entrances in your soil ? Have you been able to control these super-ants?

I thought about something today - what do you think about putting cornflour in an old stocking and letting it soak for about 48 hours, drain it into the sprayer (so that the sprayer won't clog up) and use that to spray the roses with Straw? will that have the same effect? Maybe add some Potassium as well? perhaps even some baking soda added as well? :-)

the milk didn't bring flies to my house, but my roses aren't close to my doors and windows Khalid, so I wouldn't be able to tell if they would... I'm sorry I can't answer that question...I would rather stick to Straw's advice...

Straw, it would be too late now for me to add chicken manure, with winter almost starting, am I right or should I add one last application of mature chicken manure?

Straw: Good info on chicken manure. I regularly use it in my compost and it really accelerates the decomposition. I rarely use it directly in the pots / soil beds.

Khalid: Didn't see your questions until now: "What I had been doing previously was mixing four table spoons of potash in a bucket of water (15 liters) and watering the pots and beds with that. What do you recommend?" And how do you use baking soda? I have been spraying the bushes with 1 teaspoon in 1 liter of water."

Sulfate of potash NPK is 0-0-50, very high in potassium. I would use only 1 tablespoon per 15 liters. When too much is used, it leaches out with water, plus causing LESS PETALS on bloom ... that I know for sure & done that before.

Baking soda pH is from 8.5 to 9, I would increase to 1 Tablespoon per 1 liter of water to spray mildew on leaves. It takes EXTREME alkalinity (pH 9) to kill fungus like mildew, but it takes mild acidity like corn (pH 4) to zap mildew. Plus corn has less salt than baking soda, and NPK of corn is 1.6 / 0.65 / 0.4 .. decent source of nitrogen.

I had excellent success of dusting corn meal to stop mildew on Wise Portia rose, when it was in less than 1 hour of sunshine in late fall (my tall house shaded it). It was easier than spraying: Just toss it on the leaves.

Straw: Thanks for details on potash, baking soda and corn. Another question, when you say corn meal, does it mean corn flour?

regards

It is raining cats & dogs & probably a few other pets here as well... I am soooooooooo grateful.... it was severely dry, I was trying to water with my tap water but after only 3 days everything is bone dry again...the clay earth was literally cracking up...now, the roots will have enough water for the coming winter...it is such a beautiful sound... And all the gypsum and potassium S. is going deep into the soil now. Now I will again add Potassium S, but no gypsum anymore for quite a while...I think I overdid that a bit... or what do you suggest Straw? should the gypsum and Potassium S. always be used together every time?

Thanks so much for the great info... Tomorrow I will dust every rose with corn meal, seeing that they will probably still be damp by tomorrow evening ... and I am really happy to hear I don't need to add more chicken manure. I did that twice this season already...

Khalid, did the rain take care of your Flying Super Ants?

I noticed something when spring started here... the moment the temperature reached above 28C for the first time, all roses scorched. But as the summer grew hotter, it was as if they all started adapting, and only a few scorched...most became immune to the heat and only scorched above 35C...

ps... The only time any of my roses have some disease, it is either due to bad circulation, or because I haven't given it water in the heat soon enough (then they get mildew in the rain), or when the dew starts at the end of summer, also during times when I haven't been giving it enough water... and, mostly to roses in full sun.

Yay for the rain!!! That's such a nice feeling to get needed rain.

Carol

Jess: Great to hear that you are having a nice rain. Very good for roses...

Jess wrote: "I noticed something when spring started here... the moment the temperature reached above 28C for the first time, all roses scorched. But as the summer grew hotter, it was as if they all started adapting, and only a few scorched...most became immune to the heat and only scorched above 35C..."

You are right Jess and I think this exactly is the case. Till two days back it was raining and temperature was like 20-22*C. Yesterday it suddenly rose to 31*C. This was my observation last year also that roses do adapt. However, reduction in bloom and foliage size is a part of adaptation... they present less surface area to the scorching sun.

best regards

Khalid: Per your question: "Another question, when you say corn meal, does it mean corn flour?" Corn meal is WHOLE-GRAIN, and corn flour is refined (the outer bran & fatty germ layer is stripped off for longer storage). Corn meal is more acidic than corn flour, thus stop mildew better.

I tested corn-flour and it didn't work .. doesn't have the fatty-germ layer to nourish Trichoderma (good fungus that competes with the bad fungus). The fatty-germ layer has oil to stop mildew fungus.

Jess: I use gypsum since my tap-water pH is too high & alkaline, near 9. Your tap water is less alkaline .. so you don't need gypsum to lower your tap-water's pH in your acidic red clay. Gypsum (calcium sulfate) is best IN THE PLANTING HOLE, for solid-root-growth. But calcium doesn't get leached out with rain like potassium, thus potassium is needed more often. One teaspoon of sulfate of potash, NPK 0-0-50, is enough to supply potassium per heavy rain.

I will be getting some Corn meal instead, thanks for this great info Straw... And no more gypsum for me either...that makes so much sense...

Straw: Thanks for the info on corn meal. Got it.....

Hello, I'm obviously new responding to an old post. I couldn't help it. I am in southeast Texas and your pics remind me of the hassle I have been going through. Did you ever figure out what was wrong with your roses? I'll tell you about my roses: they looked exactly like yours and after pulling my hair out my county extension office identified the pest as a chilli thrip!! What a horrible pest!