Help with Aphids?

[Snarfit]

I am setting up new living quarters for my carpets and today I discovered these little white critters creeping around on the shefflera leaves. I think they are aphids, but hopefully someone here can confirm or correct this for me.

I have my chameleons in a completely separate area while I get their new housing squared away, but I am curious what, if any, steps I need to take to get rid of these bugs. Do they pose any threat to the chams? Do I need to be worried about having them in my house?

Any help is appreciated!

 

[VerteX]

Hi,

I've not seen any aphids on my umbrella leaves but I saw the guys pictured below on the pots of my umbrella plats.

They are springtails, which are helpful to breakdown the stuff you have missed to pick up . They are natures clean-up crew (amongst many others). Springtails pose no threat and won't leave their pots and cause a problem in your home.

If what you have don't look like the posted photo, try to confirm what it looks like on the internet. If you think they are aphids, go to your local gardening store and get some neem oil. They also come in spray bottles that are already diluted for you. Remove the plant from the enclosure for the duration of treatment. Neem oil won't harm the plant, but aphids, spider mites and various other offending critters will be gone. The spray bottle you get will tell you the application interval.

I had spider mite infection on my hibiscus plant, and they were gone within a week of applying neem oil everyday.

Keep us posted...



V

 

[dodolah]

neem oil is bad for your chameleon, isn't it?
let say that your cham decided to ingest the leaves and so on..

if that is the case, perhaps, treat the plant outside of your chameleon's reach.

 

[ChrisnLisa]

If they are white and fly like fruit flies, they are probably soy bugs. I had those on some of my Hibiscus plants. Look on the under side of the leaves, are there little eggs kind of gold in color? I could not get rid of these to save my life, and ended up having to throw away a few plants and buy new ones.

 

[LBonawitz]

i've never seen white aphids, only a pale green. you could try to treat it with ladybugs (out side of the chams reach of course). See if they'll clean the plant. I think that would be the safest way to go to ensure you're not poisoning your chameleon. It'll take time, but i think its better to be safe than sorry.

if the lady bugs aren't interested i would take the plant to a local nursery and ask an employee (leave the plant in the car of course, don't want to infect their's)

good luck!

 

[Snarfit]

"Look on the under side of the leaves, are there little eggs kind of gold in color?"

Here's what I see under the leaves - the attached pictures shows what I think are more of the same, but they are REALLY small. Hard to tell what I am looking at

I don't see them flying, just crawling. I have bagged a leaf and will take it to the garden center tomorrow. I'll update as soon as I learn something new. Still hoping someone here recognizes them and can tell me if I should even worry about it.

Thanks for your help everyone!

 

[dodolah]

it's aphid.

It should not harm your chameleon.. but if the concentration is a lot, i suspect it could harm your plants, instead.
Try blasting them with strong stream of water (without harming the plants, of course).
and washing your plant with soapy water.

Once it's clear and see within couple of days if they still swarm your plants.
If that is the case, check for ants.
ants and aphids work in tandem. Ants love farming aphids.
They will carry them on their back and strategically out the aphids on plants.
in return, aphids secrete honey dew from their back end for ants to consume.

Way to kill them. Try using ladybugs suggestion (do it outside of chameleon's cage of course).

 

[Snarfit]

Dodolah -

Thanks for the confirmation. I will wash off the plants when I repot with organic potting soil. Hopefully that will put an end to them.

This is why I love this site - thanks for the help guys!