Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

One of the rottenest pests gardeners get on their plants are Pseudococcus longispinus, or any of its close relatives.  Longispinus derived from the word meaning “with a long spine or tail”, so we’re talking about the Long-Tailed Mealybug. Mind you, there are other rotters that don’t look anything like these mealybugs – a variety of scale insects do the same kind of damage, which you really don’t want to see in the garden.  All these insects feed by plumbing their mouthparts into the veins of the plants where they extract honeydew, a sweet sap that contains Nitrogen, which makes the young bugs grow.  Ah! Yes, the group of sap-sucking bugs is the only invertebrate cohort that can be called “bugs” in the naming game of Entomology!  They ingest the sap and poop out honeydew. But their numbers (huge groups) and activities are debilitating for your plants, causing yellowing and ill-thrift, plus black sooty mould all over the place.  The sooty mould is a fungal cover that feasts on the sweet