Winter Flower Pest Watch

Sucking insects such as aphids, thrips and whiteflies feed on sweet plant sap. This not only depletes the plants of important nutrients, but can cause leaves to permanently discolour and distort and sap sucking insects can also transmit plant virus

If that wasn’t enough, these insects excrete a sugary substance called honeydew, which the disease sooty mould can then grow on. Sooty mould appears as a dark grey or black ash like covering over leaves and stems. Honeydew will also attract ants, which you can see travelling up and down plant stems.

Chewing insects like caterpillars and grasshoppers can rapidly eat through lots of foliage, stems, buds and flowers.

Sometimes it’s hard to know which insect pest is causing the damage so it’s handy to have a spray which will control a range of both chewing and sucking insect pests.

Baythroid^® Advanced Insect Killer for Gardens will control many of the most common garden insect pests on ornamental plants, including grasshoppers, aphids, mealybug, lacebug, caterpillars, garden weevils, thrips and whitefly.

Spray foliage thoroughly when insect pests or their damage are seen, including underneath the leaves where insects often hide.