bugs on my plants

[PadreJP]

Came back from Scales the other day with several bunches of Potamogeton gayi. I put a bunch of it in one of my tanks, but saved some for a second tank but didn't have time to get to it over the weekend. So I threw it in a bucket with some water just to keep it alive until I had time to put it in the tank.

Well this morning I was doing some tank work and was about to move it when I noticed what looked to be a bug sitting on one of the plants in the bucket. Upon closer inspection, the plants were covered in these little bugs...dozens and dozens of them.

I'll attach two pics, one for the sake of showing the size and a second which is the best close-up I could get with my camera.

Any ideas? Should I be worried about these at all?

[rich_one]

I could be mistaken, but this resembles a stink bug... harmless, as far as I know, but the abiltiy to... well... stink. they tend to start trying to come indoors this time of year because they know winter's coming. I actually saw a news report on it this morning, believe it or not.

[Ltrepeter2000]

Virginia Tech
Department of Entomology
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Phone: (540) 231-6341
FAX: (540) 231-9131

There was an email but it was a specific person and not a generic VT email so I thought it better if you called to get a specific person that is going to be there as emails are sometimes not updated.

[DelawareJim]

Aphids. They're feeding on the emersed parts of the plants.

There are over 4,000 species of aphids so I can't be more specific. Anyway the cure is the same regardless. Put a drop of dish detergent in the bucket to break the water tension, keep everything submerged for about an hour or so and you should be good to go.

Cheers.
Jim

[sherrymitchell]

My money's on aphids too. Nasty little critters. I've had a heck of a time with them in the pond this year for some reason.

[PadreJP]

Anyway the cure is the same regardless. Put a drop of dish detergent in the bucket to break the water tension, keep everything submerged for about an hour or so and you should be good to go.

Thanks for the ID, but I'm a little hesitant to put any sort of detergent with plants that are going into my tanks, especially my dwarf shrimp tank (which is where these are destined). I would think it could be difficult to get all the last remnants of the detergent off the plants even with lots of rinsing.

I'm wondering if something else would work, maybe a dip into a hydrogen peroxide solution or something of that sort.

[sherrymitchell]

Just squash them. It's my experience that they live on the part of the plant that's exposed to the air, not under the water.....