leafhoppers

[Lisa]

My garden is being overrun by leafhoppers, even my, I thought resistant Black-eye susans, coneflowers, daisies, hostas and honeysuckle. I don't use any pesticides and haven't for a few years. I have lots of birds, spray with forceful water and hand pick the buggers, and still barely make a dent in their population. Help, what can I do that would be more successful, without harming the beneficials and my birds.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Beneficials seem to be your best bet here; in particular syrphid flies predate on leafhopper. You can plant certain plants to attract them or buy larvae. Here's my favorite site for beneficial insects...

http://www.earthworksboston.org/urbanorchards/replicate/06_Pests_and_Beneficials.htm

Syrphids are pretty common, so you probably don't need to purchase, but the attractants are probably a good bet. Lacewings are easier to buy, and hit a wide range of badguys although I don't know about leafhopper. Sprays are generally ineffective because of the spittle they hatch out of makes a fine protective coat, so I think this is your best (organic) bet.

Scott

[opabinia51]

Not to sure what you mean by: "leaf hoppers" but, I have found that in my garden, the most beneficial insect to add was the Ladybug.


Make a solution of sugar and water up and spray the insects (ladybugs) with it, then spray the infected plants and dump the ladybugs over the infected plants and let them do their thing. They are voracious eaters.
I do know that people usually use ladybugs for aphids but, I put a couple of bags of them on my vegetable garden last summer and they worked like a charm.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Opa, another common name for leafhopper is spittlebug...

Scott

[opabinia51]

You may wish to refer to the Beneficial Insects thread that has lists of plants that you can plant to attract Beneficial Insect like Syrphid Flies, Ladybugs, and so on.

[mogardener]

My hollyhocks are also covered in leafhoppers. I have used a spray with 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp dishwashing liquid & 1 quart warm water to spray the leaves in the evening (I used this to treat my blackspot on my roses, and thought why not?). This has actually killed several of the suckers (of course, there is always more the next evening). I have also read that just dishwashing liquid & water sprayed on the buggers will work. I make sure that I do not accidently spray my bees or any other beneficials.

If I remember correctly, I do believe ladybugs are supposed to be a beneficial that will eat these varmints.

If you find something that works real well - let me know!

[amastertech4u]

this works great " mix 4 tables spoons of molasses of any type to 1 gal water or less mix will spray on plants .. it realy works they run away leve works great on cabage to not one bug is on them