Spider mites are common indoor and outdoor pests and are tiny, visible only with magnification; their fine webs are a strong identifier. They vary in color from red to brown, black to yellow. They prefer the undersides of leaves but can also be found in buds and on stems, where they pierce the surface and suck out juices.

SYMPTOMS: Small brown/yellow spots surrounded by yellowing plant tissue.

RECOMMENDED CONTROL:
ZT Herbal Pesticide

Powdery Mildew is a prevalent fungal disease that is characterized by white or gray powdery growth. Most likely to attack young leaves and spread over the plant and through the garden, interfering with photosynthesis. Infected plants prematurely yellow, brown, and eventually die.

SYMPTOMS: First signs of infection are raised humps on the upper leaf surfaces. Leaves look like they’ve been dusted with flour.

RECOMMENDED CONTROL:
ZT Herbal Fungicide

Aphids are small, soft-bodied, pear-shaped insects about 1/8 inch long, ranging in color from green to yellow, black or brown. All aphids have a pair of "cornices" extending like tailpipes from their abdomen. Aphids colonize stems, petioles, and undersides of plant leaves. Their straw-like mouths puncture leaves and suck plant sap.

SYMPTOMS: leaf curl, wilting, stalling of shoot growth, decline in plant vigor. Aphid excretion attracts ants and is a medium for sooty fungus.

RECOMMENDED CONTROL:
ZT Herbal Pesticide

Thrips can be a serious greenhouse pest. Tiny, but still visible with the naked eye, they range from yellow to dark brown, have wings and jump when startled. Larvae are lighter colored, half the size and wingless. They attack leaves and are usually found on the leaf’s top surface.

SYMPTOMS: Leaf surface will look scarred or scabby, with patchy white or silvery scrapes. Specks of greenish black excrement on and under leaves also appear. Eventually leaves turn white.

RECOMMENDED CONTROL:
ZT Herbal Pesticide

Scales are named after the circular or oval hard shells that adult females produce resembling tiny "scales" or bumps, about 1/10 to 1/5 inch in diameter. Like mealybugs, scale feed on plant sap, and are found on leaf surfaces (especially undersides), stems, and in crevices.

SYMPTOMS: first signs of damage may appear as tiny dots on the leaves, which grow as they attach to the plant and produce a protective layer to ward off predators while they suck plant juices.

RECOMMENDED CONTROL:
ZT Herbal Pesticide

Fungus gnats are common indoors and occasionally outdoors, sized 3-4 mm with a dark, grayish black color and a slender build. Adults fly close to the soil level and through the lower canopy, while larvae live at the root level.

SYMPTOMS: Larvae eat roots, root hairs and organic matter, weakening the plant and are vectors for disease. Larvae may be found wiggling in drain trays after watering. Adults do not eat, living only to reproduce.

RECOMMENDED CONTROL:
ZT Herbal Pesticide

Whiteflies resemble tiny moths, about 1/10 to 1/20 inch long, covered with white powdery wax. Found primarily on the undersides of leaves, they suck sap and are vectors for viruses and release sticky honeydew that an contribute to mold problems.

SYMPTOMS: leaves appear yellow, stippled or spotty, droop, and lose vigor. When disturbed they take wing and a mass of tiny whiteflies flutter around the plant.

RECOMMENDED CONTROL:
ZT Herbal Pesticide

Mealybugs are a common pest on both indoor and outdoor plants. Females and nymphs are feeders; females are flat, oval, pink, segmented, generally covered with waxy white fluff and about 1/8th inch long and nymphs are similar but smaller. Mealybugs prefer the nodes of leaves and stems and new growth. They feed on plant juices and produce a rich excrement that ants love.

SYMPTOMS: plant yellowing, withering and premature fruit drop

RECOMMENDED CONTROL:
ZT Herbal Pesticide

The larval stage of butterflies and moths, caterpillars have a soft, segmented body with a head, thorax and abdomen. Often the same color as leaves, caterpillars can be hard to spot and have a high growth rate with the potential to destroy a tray of seedlings overnight.

SYMPTOMS: Some caterpillars eat leaves, some bore into the stem and eat the soft inner tissue, all causing direct damage to tissue and vulnerability to infection.

RECOMMENDED CONTROL:
ZT Herbal Pesticide

Gray mold is one of the most common fungal diseases, and can attack most plants. The fungus infects a plant where it is damaged or wounded (including pruning scars), or beginning to die. It is most likely to occur in cool, moist conditions and is most serious when it causes bud rot.

SYMPTOMS: The mold starts out whitish like powdery mildew and darkens to a smoky gray or brown. A silvery-gray, fuzzy mat develops on the tissue, formed from clusters of spores that fly up like dust when disturbed. Brown rots forms in the damaged tissue.

RECOMMENDED CONTROL:
ZT Herbal Fungicide

Uncommon indoors, and occasional outdoors, leaf miners are the larval form of various species of flies. They resemble very small maggots as larvae, ranging in color from pale green to white. Adults resemble tiny houseflies. Difficult to remove, miners open plants to pathogens and fungi and lower yield with damage.

SYMPTOMS: Miners eat their way through leaves carving deep scribble lines where they plant their eggs. This causes the plant to secrete a sap that attracts other pests. The leaves are also eaten by the hatching larvae.

RECOMMENDED CONTROL:
ZT Herbal Pesticide

Ants are abundant both indoors and out. They are attracted to plants that already have aphids, whiteflies, mealy bugs and scale, drawn to those pests’ sugary secretion, called honeydew. Ants herd existing pests, introduce new pests to the garden and spread pests to unaffected plants, doing great damage as the pests suck the plants’ vital juices.

SYMPTOMS: Ants can be found in the soil or planting medium, where they nest. They climb the stalk and graze their herds on the leaves.

RECOMMENDED CONTROL:
ZT Herbal Pesticide