Does anyone know what these little white things are?

[Killjoy]

In the pic, you can see little white specs on a budding hibiscus flower. before I take it out, I wanted to see if anyone knew what they might be.....for future reference. There has been no change in my chams behavior or health. These specs only came about today, as I always study the cage and do maintenance every day. Maybe cricket larva? Please let me kno. As always thanks in advance for the help.

 

[andy27012]

I have no idea, but I have the same thing on my hibiscus, I would recommend you remove all that you see, it does not seem to have affected my chams health either but it is hard to control once it gets going and it will multiply! Mine have spread all over where my heat lamp shines, thats the only place they seem to congregate.

 

[PedroANDAshley]

Im not mrs.gardener pro or anything but they look like aphids
and aphids eat plants n stuffs D:

 

[VeiledOwner87]

what ashley said, i forgot the name. just snipe that part off and check for more around the cage

 

[sandrachameleon]

you can wash aphids off with soapy water.

 

[steelheadchaser]

you can wash aphids off with soapy water.

They look like the aphids on my roses.

As Sandra mentioned, They can be sprayed with soapy water.

I use a mixture of a pure, unscented castile soap, mixed 2 tbls/quart of water. Let it sit for a few minutes and rinse off. This will also take care of any mealy bugs or spider mites. It works by washing off the waxey coating these bug have, causing them to dehydrate and die.

 

[steelheadchaser]

I should also mention that the soapy water method works by contact - there is no residual action. It is important to make sure you get 100% coverage to include the underside of the leaves and the inner portions of the plant if the foliage is dense.

 

[nacho]

They look like white flies, I had them on my habiscus outside. Do you happen to see what looks like ash on the leaves? As mentioned you could use a solution of Ivory dish or hand soap (we found Ivory works best) and water and spray them. Aza Max from a hydroponic store works great as well. I would remove the plant from the cage and treat and wait a couple of weeks prior to putting back in. Below are a couple of websites you can get information

http://www.ehow.com/how_2129167_rid-white-flies-hibiscus-plants.html
http://hiddenvalleyhibiscus.com/care/whiteflies.htm
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hibisc/msg041037473090.html


Cheers,

 

[xanthoman]

whiteflies, mites or aphids treatments all the same

ive looked at your pic at the highest x i can without destorting the image too much. i would have to vote with the aphid camp on this one, (imo, definitely not mites or whiteflies) more of a threat to plants than to your animals. doesnt really matter whether they are whiteflies, aphids, or mites, imo the treatment is all the same. just use the soapy water routine, you dont need any fancy bug soap or anything like that, imo just plain germicidal dawn dish soap rinses clean and works fine, just fill a spray bottle up about 2/ 3 with warm water, add enough dish soap so that it will get extra sudsy when shaken vigorously, take the plant outside, spray it in its entirety while shaking the bottle often to maintain sudsy factor. like earlier posters have said, its important to get the underside of the leaves,and all of the little branch intersections, personally i would spray it several times throughout the day, and rinse with an appropriate hose spray setting. i wouldnt worry about turning the plant on its side, or upside down, because, imo, it should probably be replanted anyway, in fact, (if you want to minimize the chance of their return), just to be safe, i would probably dismantle the cage interior, and put the cage and all of the cage furniture you can in a scalding hot shower and disinfect the area and everything else with bleach. i realize that not all agree with my methods, but if youre interested, my method of replanting can be found in post #4 of this thread. https://www.chameleonforums.com/little-mites-plants-45612/index2.html it has worked well for me in getting rid of infestations and i have not had a plant infestation since i started doing it to any plants that i buy. if you choose to replant, then ime, not all soils that claim to be sterile, are as sterile as they claim, (particularly organic ones that have been made from compost) so i would choose your soil carefully, or use a non soil like eco-earth. if you have soil, eventually you will end up with somesort of micro/macro organism in it (imo most cham plants should be replanted about once a year because of that). also, imo, plastic pots are less conducive to infestations than peat pots. if you decide not to replant, it wont hurt the plant to spray the soil as long as you rinse a little water through and fertilize afterwards. its sort of funny, when my mantis hatched out last spring, i did everything i could to come up with aphids, i even put an ad in craigslist, and called a local gardening club to find some, but alas, they had to settle for D. hydei. too bad you dont have a chinese ooth hatching about now! jmo

 

[Killjoy]

Hey guys and gals, thanks for all the replies, i trust in your opinions. I have removed that flower and have inspected the rest of the enclosure and found none others. I will keep an eye out over the next few days/weeks and treat with the soapy water method if i find any other.

Is this something topical or is this something within the plant that will keep arising?