White blobs on my herbs

[birdhouse-lady]

Help, I have white bubbly blobs of stuff (saliva looking and sticky) on my oregano, rosemary and some salvias. I washed them off with a good spray of water about three days ago, but now they are back with a vengence! Does anybody know what this is and how I get rid of it?

[grandpasrose]

You are referring to something called "Cuckoo Spittle". It is a white frothy secretion that is left by the larvae of hemipterous insects as a method of concealment. It is not at all harmful to your plant. You are doing the right thing in just washing it off with the hose.

Val

[JPIXI]

I have that problem about 2 weeks ago. I was so fustrated to have to spray it nearly every 2 days with water and biocarbonate then.

Eventually, I have adopted 1 to 2 tsp of cooking oil with 800ml of water (I use rainwater for all my spray) , a few drops of mild soap and half a tsp of biocarbonate to get rid of them. They never appear again after 2 applications. Maybe you could try that too. But be tactful on biocarbonate with herbs, some are rather sensitive to it. If you are worried you can even skip it.

Cheers,
Pixi

[grandpasrose]

Thanks for the tip Pixi!! You always have some sort of concoction cooked up for everything!!!

Val

[JPIXI]

He he..Thanks Val for your compliment.

Bon weekend ma chere amie

Pixi

[grandpasrose]

Et vous aussi bien, bon ami!

Val