Chive bed infestation; please help.

Chive bed infestation; please help. (post #12799)

edisoneclectic on Sat, 05/12/2007 - 01:49

Herbs

Chive bed infestation. What are they? What can I do?

I have (had?) two planters bedded with chives, which are very hard to buy here in Japan. The initial bed was planted two years ago and they have been fine.

Now however, there are hundreds of tiny (largest a little smaller than a pin head, smallest a little larger than a pin point), shiny, beetle-black, insects visible on the leaves and flower stems (I don't see anything unusual on the roots) and the green chives are becoming brown straw. None of my other herbs (dill, thyme, sage, chervil, rosemary, basil) have been attacked.

Can anyone please tell me what is happening and what I should do?

Thank you.

(post #12799, reply #1 of 3)

by KimmSr in reply to edisoneclectic [original] on Sat, 05/12/2007 - 10:50

Chives are so seldom bothered by insect pests that they are used in many gardens to repel pests on other plants and the blossoms of chives draw many beneficial insects to help control insect pests. Since yours seem to have an insect pest I would suggest starting by looking into the soil. Chives grow best in an average garden soil that is not very nutrient rich.

West central Michigan along the lake shore

A sign of a good gardener is not a green thumb, rather it is brown knees.

West central Michigan along the lake shore

A sign of a good gardener is not a green thumb, rather it is brown knees.

(post #12799, reply #3 of 3)

by APonKP in reply to Anonymous [original] on Sun, 05/20/2007 - 00:15

Your tiny black insects sound like the black aphids I get sometimes on garlic, garlic chives, or cippolini leaves. It seems to happen when the plants are getting too much moisture, especially if the weather is cool-ish or overcast.

You can blast them off with the hose, but that jsut adds to the too much water problem. Sometimes I just pull the plant up and start anew, or rake off as many as I can and hope for dry sunshine.

One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. A.A. Milne

(post #12799, reply #2 of 3)

by Regality in reply to edisoneclectic [original] on Sun, 05/13/2007 - 02:25

Darn, I get these every year, but can't remember what they are. The best I've ever been able to do is to use a strong spray of water to flush them off every day.

“For me, patriotism is the love of one’s country, while nationalism is the hatred of other peoples.”–Dmitri Likhachev

http://regality3.livejournal.com/

Chive bed infestation; please help.