help me identify this bug!

morg_monster

Hiya
Came back from a lovely week away to find that my complex watering system for my windowboxes (containing herbs) had worked, however the plants were covered in bugs, ew. I've had a lot of success with getting rid of greenfly on chives with soapy water, so i'm not too worried about them, but the mint is covered with whitefly - can I get rid of them in the same way? They look gross covered in them and the stems are starting to look like they are dying. More worrying is this fellow in the photo below - I found about 5 of them here and there, on the oregano and thyme. No obvious damage to the plants but I'm just wondering what it is. It looks like a small caterpillar from above but when you look from the side you can see it just has 6 legs at the front of its body, not all the way along like a caterpillar. It has no wings as far as i can tell and did not seem bothered by me blowing or poking at it. they vary between .5 - 1 cm long. And the stripes down the side - they look more yellow in the photo but really they are a bright sunset orange. They kind of freaked me out!!

Would very much appreciate any help you can give me on this!

bones61

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=ladybird+larvae+&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2

ladybird larvae, carefully move them to the white fly and let them feast
they will feed on the bugs so you are lucky to have them

morg_monster

now i feel stupid... thanks! I flicked some of them off - I hope that there are some left behind hiding from me!!

bones61

great picture BTW

Lord_Gardener

I agree a good pic of a great gardeners friend! I wonder how many spots it will end up with? 7 is my guess!

morg_monster

thanks - the macro on my camera is really good. And that was only on the 2MP setting!
I've just been for a look and found a few more hiding, phew, so should have some left to munch those nasties away.

ollyk

yep a ladybird lava but bare in mind there are other creatures that look like catapillers or other 'nasties' that have as much an apetite for aphids as these do - mainly Hoverfly lava (looks like a sluggy sort of caterpillar) and lacewing lava which looks like somthing else you might want to flick off!

Olly.