I’m hoping you all can help me identify what may be laying these eggs. It’s a long shot I know. Whatever it is lays a singular egg near the tip of the leaves and I’ve only found them on the top sides of the leaves. No clustering, just a single egg here and there. The plant isn’t covered but each cola has at least 5-10 scattered throughout. They’re small and white or yellow. I’m not seeing any new or major insect damage but have been spotting and removing these eggs for the last week or so.
Google keeps telling me white flys but from my experience they are usually clustered together under the leaves. Ive only found them on top near the tips so far and in a couple buds.
I watch the natural predators in my greenhouse and the only critters I see laying eggs on the tops of leaves are the small predator wasps. Not saying for sure that is what is on your leaf but you could observe it daily to see what hatches.
The wasp hatchlings proceed to scour the leaves and consume , among a host of small bugs and eggs… spider mites and thier eggs.
So you could be seeing an egg layed by a beneficial insect maybe.
I see a lot of late season predator behavior the past week in my greenhouse and notice a higher wasp count as the weather starts to cool.
Those are lacewing eggs? Definitely not what I’m seeing here. Imthe predatory wasp may be what I’m looking at. I see small little green and yellow wasps around.
Yep, you called it! Those appear to be butterfly eggs. Watch out for any young leaves that appear to be ‘folded’ together, as the caterpillars often hide themselves to munch in peace. Worse, they get into the buds and you can only find 'em when you notice dead leaf tissue.
A foliar spray of Bacillus thuringiensis bacteria (BT) will safely kill them off but it takes a day or so. They eat it with the leaf and immediately start to slow down, dying off over the next 24 hours or so.
But if you can keep pulling/squashing the eggs you’ll be ahead of them! Good luck!
a small spherical white, off white, or pale yellow colored egg, sometimes somewhat translucent, at the tip of the leaf just like that or in the same position on the underside.
I don’t know if it’s always the same species, but it’s always a bud worm.
Well I’m glad I’ve been squishing them! Came out and found a ton of them today. Little white butterfly’s are everywhere. I can only assume they are the culprit. I’ve already been spraying with BT regularly. Any major damage causes by them is yet to be seen so far. I’ve found a couple small spots of rot but so far the plant seems to be ok. This one’s only a week or so from finishing so hopefully I can keep this under control untill then.
