pests Help with pests in plant

[RafaelAmorim]

Hello,
 
I currently have 7 plants, all side by side in pots. Every plant is doing fine (a few munches on the leaves but nothing too extreme) however this plant (7 pot apocalypse) is full of apperently eggs of some kind of bug. The weird part is, the plants next to this one don't have these eggs, just this one. Should I hand remove the bugs/eggs and/or use a pesticide? (if the use of pesticides could be avoided I'll be glad)
Another question: my garden is full of ants, also some of them come into my plants, is there a problem?
 
 

 

[nmlarson]

Hi there,
 
It's tough to make a definitive call without a close up, but, I would isolate that pot and hit it with a good, strong stream of water to wash off any bugs and eggs.  They may be whiteflies, but I can't be certain.

 

[RafaelAmorim]

Uppon further inspection I discovered what might be whiteflies, here's a picture of it. Should I do something?
 

 

[bongcloud]

Images in the first post are definitely aphids. Lots of ways you can go about dealing with them. I've sprayed them with a Neem solution and it worked great, don't have experience with other methods. Picture in #3 could be whiteflies, but it's hard to be certain without a clear shot. Try catching a few on a piece of tape and take a closeup of them.
 
Edit: Just read your original post. Don't bother removing them by hand. You can hose them off until you get a proper pesticide. There's a fair amount of organic pesticides out there, if that's your worry. Some ants farm aphids, even spreading them to plants, so potentially it is a problem.

 

[solid7]

Those aren't eggs, they're aphids.  And the white stuff isn't whitefly, but the molten exoskeletons of the aphids.  That means, they're getting fat and huge, at your plant's expense.

 

[bongcloud]

And the white stuff isn't whitefly, but the molten exoskeletons of the aphids.

 
On a second look, it does look like that.

 

[CaneDog]

Yep. 100% aphids.  Spraying them with water - without beating the plants up - is a good first step.  Be sure to spray up from under the leaves too as that's where most of them will be.  They won't crawl back up on the plants once knocked off and that will really slow their infestation.  After that you'll still have some remaining and later hatch outs to deal with.  Neem is good, but I just use a homemade water and dish soap solution - spray bottle to apply (again, from underneath too and aim into foliage crevices), then wait and rinse.  Plenty of "how-to's" online. Just try to avoid spraying during the heat of the day or leaving the solution on the plant too long.  Good to be outdoors, because you don't necessarily need to fully eradicate them like you would indoors.
 
Get rid of the Aphids and their sugary excretions and the ants will likely lose interest in your plants.
 
Good luck!

 

[solid7]

They won't crawl back up on the plants once knocked off and that will really slow their infestation.

 
Oh, if ONLY this were true...  They can, will, and do crawl back up.  And those that don't crawl back up on their own, usually get shepherded back up by their ant overlords.

 

[CaneDog]

 
Oh, if ONLY this were true...  They can, will, and do crawl back up.  And those that don't crawl back up on their own, usually get shepherded back up by their ant overlords.

 

I haven't experienced that, but could be.  If you spray them down into the ground, i.e., spraying against the ground after hosing them off, I expect that would probably help. 
 
Another option is to nuke 'em from orbit.  If you really want to be sure...