I've got a hanging basket with Wave Petunias from a nursery.

I noticed this year that the petunias are sticky--like from sap(one
they are secreting). When I dead head them the dead flowers all stick
to the sap all over my fingers. I don't know if that was always true
of petunia. I don't recall that on last year's wave petunias from
seed.

There are little white things stuck all over the leaves & stems. I
thought they were a really bad infestation of some tiny bug, but none
of them move. Now I realize they are dead bugs stuck to the leaves.
Closer examination and I found the live green ones, less than 1/16 of
an inch long. They cluster with young on the underside of the flowers.
Looks like many, many of them have died in the sticky leaves and
stems.

I don't have my camera this week so I tried scanning a leaf--poor
resolution--but here's as close as I can get.
http://members.aol.com/digitalvinyl66/petuniabugs.jpg

I hadn't heard of any pests for petunias. Anyone familar with this?
The petunias are very full so they may be getting too crowded and
encouraging the bugs.

http://members.aol.com/digitalvinyl6...2004-06-17.jpg


Also the Blue Wave (a purple) have
splashes of white developing on them--as if I spilled bleach on them.
?Any ideas why?

DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email)
Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound
2nd year gardener
http://members.aol.com/DigitalVinyl66/Garden2004.html