Question
dear darlene,
HELP!!!i dont know if u can help, cuse it might be out of your expertice, i have, it seems, many simultaneous problems. First of all, i m not in the US. I live in greece. I started last year to grow a "garden" in my balcony, since the weather here is ideal. But while planting some seeds last week, i noticed some grey little pin-head sized insects, with tiny legs, running around everywhere in the soil. After checking in the other pots, i realized these are everywhere(but only in the soil). But, as i was checking at the leaves of different plants, i noticed (A) little bugs 1 mm large black and sometimes green, slightly round, with legs, and some with wings, always in a gathering on the leaves and (B)some leaves (on the jasmine plants) being "glued" together with some cotton-like sticky substance, on those leaves many very tiny black spots(not looking like having legs or anything) and when opening the glued leaves a transparent thin 5 mm larva with slightly brown head chewing on my plant!!!!!
now, i have, i think, identified the (A) bug as aphids. But the rest is a mystery...and i dont know what to do!!I want to treat them and preferably with an organic method.
Thanks a lot(sorry for the length)

Answer
Vassia,

It seems you have an assortment of insects and some may be due to overwatering so my best advice is to be careful with the watering. Most plants do not like to sit in a swamp and more plants are killed by too much water than by too little. The potting soil today has too much peat moss in it and that causes it to hold too much water so you have to be careful to let them dry out well before watering again.

Now about the bugs. My favorite organic insecticide is Neem oil. It is from the neem tree in South America and kills a lot of insects. It is very effective but I have no idea if it is available in Greece. Alternatives that I am sure are available are 70% rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle mixed with an equal amount of water and add i teaspoon of dish detergent per quart of alcohol/water mixture. Then spray all the plants well making sure you get the tops and bottoms of all the leaves and the surface of the soil. Spray them twice a week for 3 weeks then weekly for 3 more. After that watch closely and spray whenever you see any signs of insects. This mix or the Neem oil should be very effective. The Neem oil will have a more residual effect so it will last longer.

The cotton like substance on the jasmine may be mealy bugs. You can go to Google and put in mealy bug and click on images and see if that is it. The insects with wings may be fungus gnats. If you have more questions feel free to write again. Good luck.

Darlene