Anyone know what these are?

[ISaySteadyOn]

I am still pretty new to gardening and these bugs have appeared on the wild flowers we planted that advertised themselves as bumblebee friendly. What are they and are they bad for plants?

If so, we can get rid. Anyone know?

Thanks.

Hard to see but in general an infestation like that on anything is likely to damage the plant. Could be aphids or similar - diluted washing up liquid in a spray bottle or water pistol will get rid without damaging the plant.

Thank you! My phone camera isn't very good so sorry about pic quality.

Looks like aphids to me too. If you're creating a wildflower meadow, I'd leave them or just pull up the affected plant.

We've removed the affected plant to preserve some of our other ones. Thanks very much for the quick replies.

We saw them and I said to DH 'I'll ask the gardening board on MN, bet they'll know!' And, of course, you did. (without aphids)

The thing is that if you leave the affected plant it will attract other insects who eat aphids and a natural equilibrium should be found. This is the reason why veg gardeners often grow plants that aphids like alongside their food crops as sacrificial plants. Once the predators are there they then control aphids all around the garden. Hover flies and ladybirds, amongst others, eat them. Well ladybird larvae do, which look super weird and not at all like the adults, not sure about the hoverflies. There are other predators.

The real trouble comes when the bastard ants start farming aphids because they like to eat the sugary stuff the aphids excrete , and they fight off the predators.

diluted washing up liquid in a spray bottle or water pistol will get rid without damaging the plant. But will damage any "good" insects, including bumblebees.

I'm with Dragon here. It takes a bit of nerve, but if you can sit out the early prey infestations, the predators will arrive and take over.

That said, with a heavy infestation like that, I'd probably nip off all the infected shoots and dispose of them. On a tougher plant, I'd remove the aphids with finger and thumb - they're mostly water. so it's not as nastily messy as it sounds.

We, or rather DH, disposed of the plant. They're in a repurposed butler's sink and we are now keeping an eye out.

Talking of garden predators, has anybody noticed a dearth of ladybirds this year? I've seen less butterflies on the buddleia too.

I have had ladybirds and butterflies in my garden - I haven't noticed less around me. Hopefully they're doing ok 🤞

I expected lots of butterflies as we have two huge buddleias, lots of lavender and other friendly plants for them but there are hardly any. We do have swallows flying over though..maybe that is something to do with it.

What I have noticed particularly this year is dead bees
Like randomly dropped dead in flowers in my garden - which is not from anything I put on because I garden organically. Poor things.

Bees are alive and well in our garden, loads of them on our buddleia and lavender - we probably have your quota of bees and ours. Like you we garden organically

There aren't many butterflies around now. When i was growing up, I used to go and watch the butterflies on my mother's sedums - on a sunny day there's always be half a dozen or more on a single plant. Nowadays I stop and look every time a butterfly goes past.

The purpose of a bee colony is to make new queens - worker bees are mere cogs in the machine and have a life span of a few weeks. So finding dead bees is not a cause for concern.

So many people want a wildlife-friendly garden, but only the cute, photogenic stuff. Ecology and biodiversity is a web, and some elements are less appealing than others.
Dearth of ladybirds? What have they got to eat in your garden?

Same with butterflies....ahhh pretty little nectar sippers.
But the larvae eat leaves, some of which belong to less photogenic plants like nettles. Want butterflies, consider the entire lifecycle.

True, there is certainly no shortage of the cabbage whites which decimate my veg if they get the chance. My garden is quite messy wild so there are lots of leaves for the caterpillars to munch without me noticing - maybe that's why I have a reasonable amount. Not like @MereDintofPandiculation describes from childhood though. Glad that dead bees are not a worry, I also have lots of live ones!

@Cattiwampus

So many people want a wildlife-friendly garden, but only the cute, photogenic stuff. Ecology and biodiversity is a web, and some elements are less appealing than others. Dearth of ladybirds? What have they got to eat in your garden?

Probably lots. We have a totally organic garden, we plant native species, use no chemicals at all, have two wildlife ponds and areas which are left wild. It's 'arranged' (in the loosest sense of the word) to be more wildlife friendly than people friendly. We have masses of gereniums which they like and we have long grass in many areas for them to spend winter, we leave dandelions to grow as they like yellow/golden flowers. I could go on!

@Cattiwampus

Same with butterflies....ahhh pretty little nectar sippers. But the larvae eat leaves, some of which belong to less photogenic plants like nettles. Want butterflies, consider the entire lifecycle.

Ah yes, nettles. We have those too - they grow next to the wildlife pond, the only time I remove them is when I cut the small amount of grass that we have - I need some grass areas free from nettles as we have guinea pigs which go free range a lot of the time.

Your garden sounds lovely!

Thank you. It's only small but it's fairly packed with stuff.

@pepperycinnamon, it does sound lovely.

I have mainly been trying container gardening as we live in a small terrace and our sunflowers have turned out very well with at least 1 bee visiting each one daily.

I like all the different minibeasts I see and do my best to make sure that we all can coexist.