morninglory
Just Arrived
Joined: 15 Jun 2007
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 7:42 pm Post subject: help! something's eating my morning glory flowers |
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I hope someone can help me figure this out. I've planted morning glories and moonflowers from seed every spring for as long as I can remember, but I've never had this happen before. Something is eating the little buds before they can flower, resulting in a wall of beautiful morning glory leaves, but no flowers! I've tried to 'catch them in the act', and the only thing I've seen is what looks like a microscopic black ant, very tiny. I've tried the Safer Insecticidal soap, don't know what else to do. I've had one moonflower blossom and about three morning glories, though by now, I should have hundreds ! Any advice ?
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zuzu's petals
Silly Old Bat
Joined: 19 Oct 2006
Location: Coastal N.Carolina ~zone 8~ (Map)
Posts: 2569
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| Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 8:00 pm Post subject: |
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Hi Morningglory,  welcome to the Stew.
I don't know what may be attacking your flowerbuds,
but I do know that the drought conditions in my part of the country
has a lot of creatures, including some insects, behaving oddly.
Resorting to unusual measures to get the moisture they need. 
Besides the insecticidal soap, I don't know what else you can do either,
I try to stay away from harsh chemical insecticides because I have a lot of
insect eating critters around, birds and lizards, toads and skinks and such,
I wouldn't want to poison their lunch. 
I know it's not much consolation when your blossoms are being chewed to bits,
but I take the view that when the bug population grows,
something that eats bugs will notice  and balance the scales.
JMHO  ,
someone else may be able to give you some ideas that sound better to you. 
_________________
 ~*~ zuzu ~*~
I put a lot of myself into my garden.
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dooley
Official Garden Turtle
Joined: 03 Jul 2005
Location: Arizona, U.S.A (Map)
Posts: 3268
PlantStew: 2 |
| Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 11:54 pm Post subject: |
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Those little tiny ants can eat tremendous amounts of plants in a short time. We have those here, too. I've tried about everything on them and they seem to multiply instead of dying. I keep watering them down but it doesn't help much. Dooley
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hummingbird3172
Showing Great Promise
Joined: 22 May 2007
Location: Zone 9b Saint Cloud, FL
Posts: 269
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| Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 7:25 pm Post subject: |
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I had this guy:
http://www.lakewhatcom.wsu.edu/gardenkit/TopSecret/GoldTortBeetle.htm
The golden tortoise beetle, chewing on my morning glories....mine wasn't quite this dramatically gold, though...I've never seen the tiny ants, but I have lots and lots of lizards around. They seem to keep a lot of bugs under control.
_________________
~Anna 
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Netty
Chaotic Gardener
Joined: 04 Nov 2006
Location: Southern Ontario zone 5
Posts: 4295
PlantStew: 4072 |
| Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 11:50 pm Post subject: |
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I'm having a huge problem with Earwigs this year.
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bethie
Highly Skillful
Joined: 08 Jun 2006
Location: WestTennessee (Map)
Posts: 1594
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| Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 6:00 pm Post subject: |
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Zuzu's petals has it right. One of my big yellow coneflowers fell down dead and turned out to be full of termites! Very dry here, indeed.
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Ready to Grow?
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