Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!apple!rutgers!netnews.upenn.edu!pender.ee.upenn.edu!rowe From: rowe@pender.ee.upenn.edu (Mickey Rowe) Newsgroups: sci.bio Subject: Re: Little White insects on my herbs... Summary: Try and amphibious assault :) Message-ID: <21885@netnews.upenn.edu> Date: 19 Mar 90 17:36:24 GMT References: Sender: news@netnews.upenn.edu Reply-To: rowe@pender.ee.upenn.edu (Mickey Rowe) Organization: University of Pennsylvania Lines: 33 In article djd%scgrp@aimed.UUCP writes: >I have five Herb plants (marjoram, parsely, chives, oregano, basil >and rosemary) growing under a growth lamp inside the house which >have become moderately infested with little white-winged insects >which reside on the underside of the leaves of all but the chives >( no underside! :) ) Anyone know what I can do to get rid of >these... >----- >David Dmytryshyn Email: djd@scgrp.uucp >SC Group, Toronto, Canada. ncrcan!aimed!scgrp!djd I can think of one solution that should work and save you from harming yourself with any nasty chemicals. Get yourself a pet newt, and let it walk around the plants. You'd have to decide if you feel better about eating a plant that was licked by a newt versus a plant that just had bugs crawling on it. If you can handle amphibians though... I'm actually serious about this. Though I don't have any plants, and thus haven't tried it myself, I have heard that newts really love plant lice, and the descriptions I've heard of those seem to match what you describe. I do have newts, and I can vouch for the fact that they're not very discriminating about what kind of bugs they eat. I've had the greatest success with Japanese fire-bellied newts (_Cynops pyrrhogaster_), but I don't recommend these for you since their mucus contains a toxin. Eastern red-spotted newts (_Notophthalmus viridescens_) and western newts (_Taricha tarosa_) are fairly common in pet stores (at least in the united states), and should enjoy feasting on your plants symbionts. Hope this doesn't sound too off the wall. Mickey Rowe (rowe@pender.ee.upenn.edu)