Possible pests, please help me???

[Alexandria]

Hi, I'm pretty much still learning a lot from gardening and stuff, but when I started high school, the school gave all freshmen the task of taking care of a plant for all of high school and each semester you'll get rewards like an opportunity to turn in a project a day later or get an automatic A in a test (if it's well kept). There were a lot of plants to chose from that the school provided, I chose an Iresine Herbstii. I've taken good care of it up until now, it's gotten pretty big and recently I adopted another almost dying plant that a classmate basically neglected for 2 semesters before i stepped in and began nurturing it back to health. It's on its way to recovery, I've even named it Paul McCartney! (mine's called John Lennon btw). The other plant is an Alternanthera Bettzickiana if I'm not mistaken. During all these time, the only pest I've had to deal with was a surging in alphids from my Iresine and these things. They are like white spots on the leaves but not entirely white. I've always just assumed they were plague and every time I saw a leaf with it, I pinched it off the plant. The spots have become present on Paul too and my dad can't tell me what this means. The following pictures are of a leaf I pinched off from the front and back. Can anyone help me?

 

[seedcorn]

From pix, I see no insects. Leaf looks like chemical burn, did you use a foliar fertilizer?

 

[flowerbug]

to me it looks like damage from too much of something or perhaps if you used soapy water to fight the aphids, but i'm not really sure? can you describe where you are and how you've treated the plants and with what? that would help.

 

[ducks4you]

Every time that somebody asks about pest management on Mid American Gardener, They recommend insecticidal soap, which is Different than mixing Dawn with water. Insecticidal soap can be used on indoor plants and outdoor garden vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants. It will not harm a plant with another problem, so it is worth a try.

https://ento.psu.edu/publications/insecticidal-soap

 

[YourRabbitGirl]

Hi, I'm pretty much still learning a lot from gardening and stuff, but when I started high school, the school gave all freshmen the task of taking care of a plant for all of high school and each semester you'll get rewards like an opportunity to turn in a project a day later or get an automatic A in a test (if it's well kept). There were a lot of plants to chose from that the school provided, I chose an Iresine Herbstii. I've taken good care of it up until now, it's gotten pretty big and recently I adopted another almost dying plant that a classmate basically neglected for 2 semesters before i stepped in and began nurturing it back to health. It's on its way to recovery, I've even named it Paul McCartney! (mine's called John Lennon btw). The other plant is an Alternanthera Bettzickiana if I'm not mistaken. During all these time, the only pest I've had to deal with was a surging in alphids from my Iresine and these things. They are like white spots on the leaves but not entirely white. I've always just assumed they were plague and every time I saw a leaf with it, I pinched it off the plant. The spots have become present on Paul too and my dad can't tell me what this means. The following pictures are of a leaf I pinched off from the front and back. Can anyone help me?
View attachment 34957View attachment 34958

My opinion is, a pest, definitely a pest, I hope you can produce any insecticide that can help you out with that.

 

[Alexandria]

to me it looks like damage from too much of something or perhaps if you used soapy water to fight the aphids, but i'm not really sure? can you describe where you are and how you've treated the plants and with what? that would help.

My iresine has had alphids in the past, it was a very minor infestation. From advice I first used the soapy water, but that didn't do anything so my dad gave this pest killer stuff he uses for his plants. It's called Plant Care Plus: Mata Insectos Para Plantas from a company called Ortho. It did the trick and so far, alphids have not been a problem. The iresine has presented the spots too before and they still pop up in like the very small leaves. Paul (the other plant) was rescued from another student, it was super dehydrated and on the brink of going dry. I don't know if it had alphids before, but I'll ask the previous owner for details. The only thing I've given it are these blue "pearls" or balls that have like minerals or nutrients that dissolve in water when January started. I live in Mexico.

 

[Alexandria]

I've been doing some research and I believe it might be the work of leafhoppers or similars. What do y'all think?

 

[flowerbug]

I've been doing some research and I believe it might be the work of leafhoppers or similars. What do y'all think?

i see some leaf hoppers here or there on my garden plants but i do not treat for them in any way.

my main source of little holes in leaves are flea beetles and they can make a newly leafing out plant look a bit chewed up, but i don't treat for them either. they seem to go after certain plants (young: bean, radish or turnip sprouts), but what happens after a bit is that the plant keeps growing and the bugs no longer do damage that is significant. often i think the poisons used are much worse than the problem.

 

[YourRabbitGirl]

i see some leaf hoppers here or there on my garden plants but i do not treat for them in any way.

my main source of little holes in leaves are flea beetles and they can make a newly leafing out plant look a bit chewed up, but i don't treat for them either. they seem to go after certain plants (young: bean, radish or turnip sprouts), but what happens after a bit is that the plant keeps growing and the bugs no longer do damage that is significant. often i think the poisons used are much worse than the problem.

On Leaves, you can avoid Leafhopper nymphs, apply 1 tablespoon of alcohol rubbing to 1 quarter of soap to increase the effectiveness of the soap. Hang sticky traps around infested plants, or double-sided tape. Shake vigorously on the plants to dislodge the adult leafhoppers. Many will get stuck in sticky traps when they fly away.