What are these bugs and how do I kill them?
Question:One looks like teenie tiny grasshoppers but are a light brown or tan colour, and the other is a little round black domed circle on the plant, and if you touch it with something it flies away. They are both eating my garden making tiny holes in all the leaves. I'd like to get rid of them but not hurt the birds, cats and dogs I have in my yard. Also run off from my yard will go to a tributary of our local water basin so it can't be poison.
Thank you anyone who knows what do do. : )
Answers:
The first one; if it looks like a grasshopper it probably is a grasshopper. Young grasshoppers look the same as the adults and get bigger during each molt.
The other ones could be an aphids. Aphids exists in several stages. Those that fly and those who don't. A picture of them could have been very helpful in identifying your bugs. As to eradication, if you have also ants try to control those first as ants take the aphids to feed on plants so that they can suck the honey the aphids produce (it is like our domestic cows for them). To control ants without contaminating anything else may be possible by buying ant traps. You have then to remove the aphids by hands.
To remove the grasshoppers one needs to use insecticide. The best way is to spray but since you do not want to harm the wildlife I suggest you buy a systemic insecticide and water carefully the roots. The plant will become poisonous to the bugs for some time.
The grasshopper-looking one is probably a cricket.
sounds like a cricket! spray with "bug-b-gon" and it will get rid of em! i use the bottle that attaches directly to ur hose, no mixing and guessing how much to apply... just spray!
Cut the top off of a plastic bottle, 1/4 cup strawberry jelly (cheap store brand), 1 cup water, mix and add to bottom of bottle. Invert top and tape (neck down) to bottom of bottle. Grass hoppers get in, but can't get out.
Domed things are "scale" can be removed with alcohol soaked cotton balls. Takes a while, but works.
the little round one is an aphid. i have removed most of them by using a cup of crushed chilli's and water.
To kill bugs on your plants without harming the plants or other animals, get a sprayer, like from a bottle of windex, clean it thoroughly, fill it with water and some dishwashing liquid, not a lot, just a few squirts, shake and spray the soapy water on your leaves. This is also effective with ants. This is what I use when the little bugs start chewing on my tomato plant leaves. Make sure you spray the undersides of the leaves too. The bugs don't like the soap and it dries the ants up.
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