Bugs You Need to Watch for During the Winter
Aphid feeding on sap (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When you think of bugs during the winter, the first thing that comes to mind is the flu. While the flu can cause you to spend some time in bed, there’s another set of bugs that can harm your plants, in some cases killing them. These bugs are the aphids, armored scales, mealy bugs and spider mites that can be found both indoors and outdoors.
So how do you spot them and what kind of damage can you expect from each one?
Frequently Asked Questions About Winter Garden Pests
Aphids, scales, mealy bugs, and mites. These four groups—aphids, armored scales, mealy bugs, and spider mites—are active both indoors and outdoors. They feed on sap, leaves, and stems, weakening plants during the colder months when growth is already slow.
Scrape them off or use horticultural oil. Pesticides often fail because scales build a protective shell. For small infestations, physically scrape them off. For larger numbers, apply horticultural oil to smother them effectively.
Look for clustered bugs; spray insecticidal soap. Aphids appear in green, yellow, or red clusters and drain sap, causing leaf loss. Inspect regularly and spray with insecticidal soap early to catch them before the infestation spreads.
Rubbing alcohol or insecticidal soap. Mealy bugs look like cottony patches. For a few, dab them directly with rubbing alcohol. If they multiply quickly, use insecticidal soap to stop the colony from draining your plant's sap.
Apply horticultural oil immediately. Spider mites are tiny arachnids that reproduce frantically. Applying horticultural oil is a fast, effective way to eliminate them before they overwhelm your plant.
Armored Scales
Armored scales for example, are going to look like tiny bumps that will cover parts of your plants. They can be brown, gray or white and will begin to feed on leaves and stems on a plant that they attach themselves to.
Once they are on the leaf, they will drop their legs and build a shell that protects them from pesticides. They then lay their eggs internally and will die when their children hatch. The new scales will then choose an area of the plant and repeat the cycle, until the plant dies.
For the armored scales, you can’t use pesticides. Instead, you need to scrape them off if they are minimal or use horticultural oil if there are many.
Aphids
Aphids will be another creature to pay close attention for, as they thrive on the sap of your plants. As they grow in numbers, the plant will lose leaves and flowers and eventually, it can die.
You’ll know you have an aphid problem when you see groups of them huddled together on the plant. They can be green, yellow, orange, brown or even red and can be difficult to control if you catch them late.
Be sure to keep an eye on your plants regularly in the winter months and spray them with an insecticidal soap to help remove these bugs before they become a bigger issue.
Mealy Bugs
Your next concern will be mealy bugs which can look like a cotton exoskeleton. These creatures will drain the sap from plants and will multiply very quickly.
When you first notice them, you should dab them with some rubbing alcohol if there aren’t many, or spray the plant with insecticidal soap to help stop them right away.
Spider Mites
The last bug to keep in mind is a spider mite, which is a small arachnid. These are tiny little spiders that live off the sap of a plant and will reproduce frantically.
Thankfully, with a little horticultural oil on the plant, you can be rid of these pests in almost no time at all. Winter can be hard enough on plants without the addition of these pests. Make sure you do what you can to keep them at bay and take action the moment you notice any of these insects on your precious plants.
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