What's eating my chrysanthemum?

Chrysanthemums are magnets for aphids, earwigs, spider mites, and leaf miners. Garden plants also face damage from caterpillars and slugs. Aphids colonizing tender shoot tips are the single most consistent pest. Inspect weekly, remove pests by hand early, and use targeted sprays to protect blooms.

Curled, sticky shoot tips and deformed buds; sooty mold coating leaves below colonies Knock off with water jet; apply insecticidal soap or pyrethrin spray; plant companion alliums nearby to deter

Ragged holes in petals and young leaves, especially to lower blooms; feeding is nocturnal Trap in rolled damp newspaper or upturned pots filled with straw; collect and discard each morning

Pale, bronzed stippling on foliage; fine silk webbing on undersides in hot, dry weather Increase humidity; spray forcefully with water; apply bifenazate or insecticidal soap; release Phytoseiulus persimilis in greenhouses

Pale serpentine tunnels and blotches on leaves reduce photosynthesis and disfigure plants Remove and destroy mined leaves promptly; apply spinosad-based spray targeting adult flies; avoid broad-spectrum insecticides that kill parasitic wasps