Black Speck on Hibiscus Bud?

[My Foot Smells]

Hard as a rock, no movement that I can see. Black specks on the buds only.

[sdambr]

Looks like aphids.

[My Foot Smells]

This was stored in the gh all winter. What would be the best thing to do?

[sdambr]

Mine are in the house and I have been battling them all winter. I cut off badly infected buds and spray with neem oil. Finally had them under control, had to go away for a week and they are back. I can't wait to get them outside.

[My Foot Smells]

Thanks. The tropicals and lime tree are still in the gh. night time lows are still a little cool, but will get them outside this weekend and give them a blast and then clean the greenhouse out with some soapy suds.

[Starlight]

The black spots may be frass. Take a look especially around the base of your buds and see if you see any tiny holes.

[My Foot Smells]

Never heard of frass. I will look. I did not see any bugs with the naked eye and as previously stated the bud is hard as a rock. The black specks are like poppy seed.

The leaves look healthy on inspection and no visible problems with the new growth. LY this hibiscus had a bad mold problem and thought it was a goner, but seems to have survived.

The lime tree has ants, thought about just yanking the tree out of the huge pot and giving it a good bath and washing out the large ceramic pot, but it is thorny had heavy load. I usually just scoop out the accessible dirt and give it some fresh potting soil and fertilizer. It also has a couple of branches that the leaves have "disappeared," and some yellowing leaves.

[Starlight]

That sounds just like frass to me. Frass is like the poop some bugs usually make. There is this little tiny green worm. It is called Hibiscus sawfly and it will lay its eggs and the larvae will eat the leaves, but they especially love the bud. When the worms first emerge they are so tiny you can't see them usually until they have done eaten away at your buds and leaves.

That is why I asked if you seen any holes around the buds. Usually they make a tiny pinhole near the base of the bud and go inside and munch away. If you open up a bud, if the infestation is bad, you will see it loaded with the black frass and can sometimes find the worms. When the worms get bigger, they look like those tiny little green inch worms.

If this is what you have, they are not easy to get rid of. Seems as fast as you spray, they back again. They can lay up to 6 generations of eggs a year.

I used to grow Hibiscus. I had bought a bunch of them too, named crosses, and the Sawflies destroyed everyone of them. After three years of battling them, and only getting a couple of blooms to survive, I gave up on growing them.

Garden Safe spray does help, but it gets expensive with the constant spraying. I did learn not to use Seven dust though. Agggg tried that one year and it just stuck and made a giant mess of the few leaves left. The Seven killed the plants before it killed the worms.

[My Foot Smells]

I'm heading thata way right now with my hunting cap and magnifying glass. Will report back on any bug/worm findings - but maybe tommorrow as I am about to unplug for the today. thanks again.

[My Foot Smells]

Pretty sure a small infestation of aphids that only concentrated on the bud. the black specs were the aphids with lots of eggs on the outside and underneath the first leaf. I cut of the buds and put in Ziploc bag. Oddly enough the aphids were not inside the bud, just on the outside.

[Starlight]

Glad you figured out they was aphids. There are many colors of them and the black ones generally do stay near the top of the plants and around the new growth. Google Chrysanthemum aphid and generally it is the name for the black colored ones.

The thing I question is aphids don't lay eggs, they give live birth. What color were the eggs? You may have Lady Bug eggs on the leaves if it is aphids.

Is there anyway you can get some on a plate or something and take a pic?

[My Foot Smells]

The eggs were beige to off white in color and in clusters and about 1/3 the size of a bb. Easily squished by running finger down the leaf. The "bugs" were not moving until I started to unravel the bud. I searched the entire plant and only found them at the top of the buds and first leaf under the bud formation. All the growth is new per se', as I cut it back for the winter, but bugs didn't have desire to go for other part of plant. I gave it a bath after removing the tops.

Upon googling Chrysanthemum, it does give appearance of black aphid, however, these guys were really small and even under a mag glass it was difficult to get detail.

Don't leave your mag glass laying about, the sun was an intense one yesterday and 87 degrees, burnt up a leaf in a matter of seconds.