Dear Coral,

You have aphids and white flies. They are prevalent this time of year as they like the new leaves and flower buds but they can be seen during other months as well. They are both sucking insects and will dry out the buds and new leaves. Aphids come in numerous colors including green, black and a dusty blue gray and probably other colors as well. Whiteflies are those little specs of white on the leaves.

They are easy to get rid of. Put on a glove and gently but firmly start on the stem and pull up  wherever they are. This is the easiest, fastest way to get rid of them.

These are soft bodied insects and will be crushed easily. You can then take your hose and spray the entire bush with a hard spray to knock the rest of them off. Most of them will not be able to return once on the ground. There are only a few of them with wings which will then fly to new sources of food and start producing more aphids.

You can make a homemade insecticidal spray with liquid soap, vegetable oil and water in a spray bottle. One tablespoon of liquid soap and one tablespoon of vegetable oil (any that you have in your kitchen works) and fill a large spray bottle and shake it up. Spray directly on the insects. It burns them. Spray both the upper and lower sides of the leaves. It will kill any insect it touches so be careful not to spray lady bugs which will eat the aphids.   Castille liquid soap without scent is the easiest on the plants.  Shake the bottle every few minutes to re-mix the soap/oil with the water when spraying.

Both aphids and white flies produce 'honeydew' which is a sticky substance you see on the leaves.  If you have ants, they will herd and milk the insects for the honeydew.  They will also keep the natural predators away such as lacewings and ladybugs.

If you do have ants, put some borax mixed with sugar around the base of the plant.  The ants will take it to their home site for everyone to eat.  You can also put some petroleum jelly around the base of the trunk of the plant.  That will keep the ants from going up the plant.

Aphids are born pregnant and can hatch more aphids daily. Whiteflies also reproduce readily. I am adding links so you can read about them. Also information on ladybugs because their juveniles look much different from the adults. You don't want to kill them.

This is a great article on aphids with plenty of other ways to get rid of the pests both aphids and white flies: https://www.almanac.com/pest/aphids

This article is on whiteflies: https://www.almanac.com/pest/whiteflies

One article talks about vacuuming the bugs off, in my opinion not a good idea. The vacuum is usually too strong and will break new stems off and it doesn't kill all the bugs. You have live bugs in the vacuum at least for a while. A lot of dead bugs in one closed space can smell very badly.

The flour method can clog the leaves so they cannot breathe so I don't use that method either especially with the honeydew on the leaves.

That's why I recommend the first method with gloves, gently smash the bugs, quick, easy and you can see the aphids and the whiteflies. Also the insecticidal soap spray will help get rid of the honeydew (the sticky substance) on the leaves. Dust can collect on the leaves making them look dirty, usually only a visual thing but it can clog the plant's ability to produce sugars for itself.

And here is a link to ladybugs. There is not a lot of info but there are pictures. Please scroll down so you can see what an immature lady bug looks like. They are nothing like the adult but they eat more than the adults. The soap spray or water spray for that matter will kill them or knock them off the plant. http://oregonstate.edu/dept/nurspest/Lady_beetles.html

Thank you for contacting Ask Extension.  If you have further questions please let us know.