Strange bugs on Blackcurrants
 

We have some wierd things living on one of our blackcurrant bushes!
I have enclosed the only pjhoto I could find of it on the web, but it had no discription, so am still in the dark.

It looks abit like the shell of a wood louse, but under it is a thick lump of what appears to be white gloop, but when it is disturbed, the white bit pulls out like sticky silk/candyfloss fibre.

Any suggestions, eradications, and if there are any natural predators we can introduce instead.

ThanX Glenys
Sheffield UK

Strange bugs on Blackcurrants
 

Glenys wrote:
We have some wierd things living on one of our blackcurrant bushes!
I have enclosed the only pjhoto I could find of it on the web, but it
had no discription, so am still in the dark.

It looks abit like the shell of a wood louse, but under it is a thick
lump of what appears to be white gloop, but when it is disturbed, the
white bit pulls out like sticky silk/candyfloss fibre.

Any suggestions, eradications, and if there are any natural predators
we can introduce instead.

ThanX Glenys
Sheffield UK


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The photo isn't very close but from your description I would say mealy bug.
You need a contact insecticed with a soap or detergent to get through the
goo or a systemic as they are sap suckers. On a small plant, eg house
plants in pots, you can get them with a cotton bud dipped in metholated
spirits. Apparently there is now a natural control agent Verticillium
lecanii (a kind of fungus) but I have never used it and I don't know what
name it is marketed under. Perhaps ask your local nursery.

D

Strange bugs on Blackcurrants
 

Glenys said:
We have some wierd things living on one of our blackcurrant bushes!
I have enclosed the only pjhoto I could find of it on the web, but it
had no discription, so am still in the dark.

It looks abit like the shell of a wood louse, but under it is a thick
lump of what appears to be white gloop, but when it is disturbed, the
white bit pulls out like sticky silk/candyfloss fibre.

Any suggestions, eradications, and if there are any natural predators we
can introduce instead.

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attachmentid=16011|
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Hard to tell as the photo is small, but I am thinking it's cottony cushion
scale.

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7410.html

--
Pat in Plymouth MI

"Yes, swooping is bad."

email valid but not regularly monitored

Strange bugs on Blackcurrants
 

In article
Glenys writes:

We have some wierd things living on one of our blackcurrant bushes!
I have enclosed the only pjhoto I could find of it on the web, but it
had no discription, so am still in the dark.

That picture seems to be from this thread:
http://www.kitchengarden.co.uk/forum...ic.php?p=12661

Guesses there are scale and wooly aphid.

It looks abit like the shell of a wood louse, but under it is a thick
lump of what appears to be white gloop, but when it is disturbed, the
white bit pulls out like sticky silk/candyfloss fibre.

Any suggestions, eradications, and if there are any natural predators we
can introduce instead.

ThanX Glenys
Sheffield UK


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--
Glenys


--
Drew Lawson | I told them we had learned to change
| our swordblades into plows.
| I told them they should learn from us
| what should I tell them now?