Help ID Bug

[aclum]

Hi,

I found a few tiny little bugs on some of my plants today and need help in identifying them. They are WAY too tiny for me to photograph, and I could only see any detail at all by using a 40x loupe.

To the naked eye they look white, but under magnification appear sort of a very light tan. They're about 1/16" long (at most) and VERY thin. They have 6 legs with the legs going from the light tan to about black at the "feet." The bodies are fairly well elevated by the legs. They seem to have two little round black eyes on the end of their body - sort of like lobster eyes. Couldn't see any wings or antenna, although the end opposite the eyes seemed to have a little bulge or teeny-teeny-tiny sort of horseshoe like shape.

I haven't noticed any damage to these particular "buggy" plants - YET !

Any guesses on what the bug might be?

Thanks!
Anne

[epsilon]

look familiar?

[kurt]

https://insects.tamu.edu/images/inse...t/bimg119.html

I got some black thrips in my gardenia bush,a order of lady bugs did the trick.

[aclum]

Hi Epsilon and Kurt,

Thanks for posting (or linking) to the photos. (And thanks for the ladybug tip). But the bugs in the photos are a bit different from whatever I've got in the garden. I'll go out in the garden and get another look at "my" bugs once the garden dries out a bit (had some rain last night and a bit too muddy for me to get into the garden at the moment). In the meantime, from memory.....

My bug had very different legs. They were more articulated with the final segment turned outward (sort of like a foot). The legs were much larger in proportion to the body than those of the bugs shown in the photos. Also, the legs on my bug went from a tan like the body to a dark, nearly black "foot" segment.

The body was a bit different. I didn't notice any wings or parallel structures/markings on the top side of the body. The rear end was not pointed. If anything, it might have been a bit bulbous.

The bugs were on both the top of the leaves and on the underside of the leaves. They didn't move or fall/fly off the leaves when I tapped them.

Anne

[clkeiper]

I don't know what you have to take a picture with, but if it is a phone, I saw an excellent tip not too long ago from a tech geek... he puts the loupe on the camera of his phone to take macro pictures.

[epsilon]

I forgot to mention this but you can get pretty outstanding close up pics with a smart phone if you zoom in all the way first, and then allow the camera to focus. this is a pic of one of a few hundred Mantis' that hatches a week ago. So I suspect you might get just enough of a pic to give us an idea of what you're dealing with.

[Labradors2]

Wow! Epsilon! What an amazing close up of a baby Mantis!

Thanks for sharing. I can't even get a good close up of a tomato seedling using macro - it goes all fuzzy - sigh!

Linda

[aclum]

Hi,

I agree with Linda - that's an incredible photo, Epsilon!!

I don't have a smart phone and even taking close-ups with my inexpensive digital camera is sort of iffy at times so I really doubt I could get anything at all helpful in the way of a close-up photo to post.

But, looking through lots of insect/thrips photos on google images, I do agree that my bug is most likely a type of thrips. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!!

I've got yellow and blue sided insect sticky traps all over the garden around the tomatoes (just put them up yesterday) so maybe they'll help. I did notice a ladybug in the garden yesterday so I'm hoping more will show up soon. If not, I guess I can buy some.

Thanks again for the help.

Anne

[kurt]

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/C107/...eafinvert.html

If you start seeing the (sooty mold)that means you have a infestation.When this occurs the s.mold/honeydew/excrement will draw ants that "farm"the honeydew back to their hive/colony.At that point the ants will act as guards and sometimes dispel the ladybug beneficials.Dependent on the amount of Lady Bugs the ants if large(colony and physical size of ant species) enough will win out.Might have to nuke the thrips at that point and time with some Montery Take Down before going the L Bug route.Good Luck.

[aclum]

Hi Kurt,

Thanks for the link - it's really interesting. I'm anxious to get back in the garden now and re-examine things. I think I may have more than thrips (and possibly russet mites) going on....

Ants are really the bane of my existence in the garden!! We live in an area that used to be almond orchards that's apparently part of the California ant Supercolony. I've sprayed several of my beds with a mix of molasses and murphy's oil soap with water, used borax and sugar mixes, and various terro ant killers and just can't seem to get rid of them entirely. They and their little aphid underlings usually manage to infest and render inedible most of the non-tomato veggies I try to grow - particularly beans and squash.

I've only spotted a few of the thrips so far. Hopefully, I can nip them in the bud (so to speak).

Anne

[JamesL]

Epsilon,
That is a fantastic pic and a great tip! I just tried it and it really works. Been struggling with iPhone close ups for a while now.

[clkeiper]

Thrips are really bad. if you have them you may want to pick off the blossoms until you have them under control or they are gone. The fruit will be damaged and deformed. Ugly!

[aclum]

Hi,

Bummer about the thrips! I picked up some SaferGro Pest Out a while back that's supposed to control mites, thrips, and aphids. I'll give some of that a try tomorrow. I've only seen 2 out of about 40 plants with the thrips so far. Very few blossoms on any of the plants so far, but I'll probably go ahead and remove the blossoms from the infested plants at least.

The Pest Out's active ingredients are Cottonseed Oil, Clove Oil, and Garlic Oil, BTW.

Anne

[epsilon]

Aclum

Sorry about making the assumption that you might have a smart phone. But I'm glad to hear that you may have a general idea of whats sitting on your plants. And hopefully the problem resolves fast and before it reaches any level of infestation.

Gaston

[aclum]

Hi again,

I just looked at Fishergurrl's "Bug Party" thread, and with a couple of differences, the shed aphid skin or shell or whatever in her photo looks a lot more like what I saw than the photos of the thrips I've seen. The differences are that the bug I observed didn't have antennae (that I could see anyway) and did have eyes (that the aphid shell doesn't seem to have). The similar features were the proportionately longer legs (as compared to body size), the blunt rear end, and the sort of wrinkly appearing back without any parallel longitudinal features along the back.

I didn't see any live adult or baby aphids on my plants though. Will take another look when the garden dries out.

Anne