Photos of bugs in my south Florida garden

[kurt]

If you have squiggly lines in leaves like it shows in photo next to veins might be leaf miners.They inject a egg into middle of leaf.they eat ,morph into a pupae and drop into ground and come out as adult and start all over again. http://search.aol.com/aol/image?q=le...yword_rollover

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by kurt

If you have squiggly lines in leaves like it shows in photo next to veins might be leaf miners.They inject a egg into middle of leaf.they eat ,morph into a pupae and drop into ground and come out as adult and start all over again. http://search.aol.com/aol/image?q=le...yword_rollover

I get those every year in mass quantities. Gave up trying to keep up. Sometimes 3 or 4 "tracks" in one leaf!

[mikej]

Regal Jumping Spiders are known to feed on a wide variety of other arthropods. Smaller immatures feed heavily on Diptera, while older juveniles and adults feed on large Orthoptera and Hemiptera, and larval and adult Lepidoptera . A male of P. regius was collected while feeding on an adult of Diaprepes abbreviatus (Linnaeus), a pest of citrus and sugarcane. Here is my pic of one feeding on an assassin bug while I was picking peas today. Tried to get a better pic but could not. I was also able to get a cool pic of an assassin bug.

[Redbaron]

Sounds like your garden is a regular battleground, with both pests and beneficials of a wide variety! That's my definition of a healthy garden!

[bzzybee]

Loved all the pics, thanks for sharing. That first bug on the thread appeared for the first time in my yard last year and has an enormous appetite for lychee and giant potato tree leaves. This summer I finally started seeing some birds eating them and they do a good job of keeping the population contained. I don't like to spray anything and buy ladybugs, other beneficials and try to grow plants that offer food and habitat for all to keep them coming back.

[ginger2778]

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Photos of whiteflies as promised.
The first one is of silverleaf whiteflies, these are the type that infect tomato plants with TYLCV. Next is the sooty mildew on the top of a banana leaf where they are underneath. Next 2 are whitefly colonies on the underside of the banana leaves, they can get hundreds thick in days. Next is a type of whitefly called the spiral whitefly for obvious reasons. Last is a single spiral whitefly on a banana. THese are directly from my backyard, then multiply it by the over 2000 homes in my neighborhood, and every banana leaf, you begin to see the problem.

[halleone]

Originally Posted by kurt

If you have squiggly lines in leaves like it shows in photo next to veins might be leaf miners.They inject a egg into middle of leaf.they eat ,morph into a pupae and drop into ground and come out as adult and start all over again. http://search.aol.com/aol/image?q=le...yword_rollover

I am inclined to agree with Kurt on this one. These flies are what I see every year all around my beets and spinach, and not too much later, the leaf miner tracks are readily apparent. They usually wipe out ALL of my beet leaf greens; this year I put up one of those little cheap green 18" fences around my beets and put wedding net over them, holding the net on with clothes pins. For the first time in forever, my beet greens were clear and clean.

Now if I could just come up with a way to keep out the squash bugs and SVB that didn't require yards and yards of netting.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by halleone

I am inclined to agree with Kurt on this one. These flies are what I see every year all around my beets and spinach, and not too much later, the leaf miner tracks are readily apparent. They usually wipe out ALL of my beet leaf greens; this year I put up one of those little cheap green 18" fences around my beets and put wedding net over them, holding the net on with clothes pins. For the first time in forever, my beet greens were clear and clean.

Now if I could just come up with a way to keep out the squash bugs and SVB that didn't require yards and yards of netting.

You guys are referring to the post on the previous page right?
"Cause my photos are for sure of whiteflies, they are outside of the leaves. I have leafminers too though, but they don't kill the plant or give it tomato yellow leaf curl virus.

[halleone]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

You guys are referring to the post on the previous page right?
"Cause my photos are for sure of whiteflies, they are outside of the leaves. I have leafminers too though, but they don't kill the plant or give it tomato yellow leaf curl virus.

Yup.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by halleone

Yup.

K thanks!

[mikej]

Thanks Marsh for pics of the white flies. Don't think I have seen any of those, but now since I know that I must look close I will.

Kurt and Halleone. I have another pic here of a copper colored fly that I think fits into the Long legged fly of the beneficial type.
http://www.floridagardener.com/critt...chopodidae.htm

What do the flies look like that causes leaf miner?

[kurt]

The pic in post 15 is what I get flying real fast and jumping from leaf to leaf on my maters.I grow all my maters in our closed in screen pool enclosure area.They get in somehow and I look for the squiggly trails and remove the leaf and stop the cycle(life).Outside the enclosure they attack mostly the soft tissue weeds and plants in the hood.

[mikej]

Thanks Kurt! I have many of these green and copper colored flies. Being that they are considered a beneficial, I guess they can also be a pest then. What is the balance point that will tip the scales of being more beneficial than pest. I was just reading about leaf miners in Florida and they are caused by flies, beetles, and moths. So far I have none on my tomato plants, and very little on my peas.

[mikej]

This description is long because the information is applicable to us for trying to be as organic as possible.


The beet armyworm originated in Southeast Asia. It was first discovered in North America about 1876, when it was found in Oregon, and it reached Florida in 1924. It rarely overwinters in areas where frost kills its host plants. Thus, overwintering is generally limited to Arizona, Florida, and Texas. Nevertheless, beet armyworm invades the southern half of the United States (Maryland to Colorado to northern California, and south) annually. Except in greenhouses, it rarely is a pest except in southern states.

The beet armyworm has a wide host range, occurring as a serious pest of vegetable, field, and flower crops. Among susceptible vegetable crops are asparagus, bean, beet, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, chickpea, corn, cowpea, eggplant, lettuce, onion, pea, pepper, potato, radish, spinach, sweet potato, tomato, and turnip.

Larvae feed on both foliage and fruit. In Florida it is regarded as a serious defoliator of flower crops and cotton, though much of the injury is induced by insecticide use that interferes with natural enemy activity. Young larvae feed gregariously and skeletonize foliage. As they mature, larvae become solitary and eat large irregular holes in foliage. Tomato fruit is most susceptible to injury, especially near fruit maturity, but beet armyworm is not considered to be as threatening to tomato as is the corn earworm. Numerous native natural enemies have adapted to this pest. Predators frequently attack the eggs and small larvae; among the most important are minute pirate bugs, bigeye bugs, damsel bugs, and a predatory shield bug, . Pupae are subject to attack, especially by the red imported fire ant.

Insecticide resistance is a major problem in management of this insect, possibly because it attacks crops such as flowers, cotton, and vegetables - crops that are treated frequently with insecticides. Beet armyworm abundance is favored by frequent insecticide use, and it is considered to be a secondary or induced pest in some crops. Also, intensive use of insecticides for beet armyworm control in vegetables such as celery has stimulated outbreaks of other pests, principally American serpentine leafminer.

Beet armyworm larvae are susceptible to neem products.

[Redbaron]

I had a bunch of those last year. This year almost none.