Ruud Kleinpaste: Timing is Everything: Fluffy Bums

Passionvine Hoppers came up in conversation a week or so ago: a nuisance for gardeners, especially in the warmer north (but more and more a pain-in-the-South as well!). 

I also remember that Aucklanders often called them lacy-winged moths. Shows you that entomological knowledge has always been slow to sink in up there in the North Island.  

They are certainly not moths, these critters belong to a totally different insect order: the Homoptera, or sap-sucking bugs. Yes, these are some of the insects you can legitimately call “bugs” in entomological parlance.  

LIFE CYCLE:  

Eggs hatch in October – the timing relates to warmth in spring.  

The tiny fluffy bums (“nymphs”) suck sap from a wide variety of host plants and slowly grow bigger and bigger. They also become nimbler and can hop greater distances as they grow larger in spring.  

Late in spring (December onwards) the Fluffy Bums will moult their last moult and turn into a winged adult Passionvine Hopper.   

One nymph of passion vine hopper (fluffy bum) and three winged adults in summer. 

They will still suck sap from your favourite plants – they will also continue excreting sticky honeydew all over the plants and leaves below.  

(And as we all know, honeydew is a perfect place for sooty mould to grow – black, ugly fungal material that looks as if a miniature fire has burnt your plants). 

This is also the time for mating and female Passionvine Bugs will lay eggs in the autumn. They prefer to insert the eggs in thin branches, leaving a patterned oviposition site, which keeps the eggs in good nick during the winter months  

CONTROL and PREVENTION:  

Keep an eye on the new fluffy bums hatching in your garden right now! Those tiny nymphs often congregate in large flocks at the ends of new growth; they are still very feeble in their movement and won’t be able to escape a cloud of fly-spray aimed at them on a wind-still morning. 

Small, young nymphs 

Spray these young passionvine hoppers in October with a good dose of fly-spray. 

In autumn there is a second chance for control: spot the new egg-sites on thin twigs and tendrils, cut these off and burn them in the fireplace (Fried Eggs!). 

Eggs laid in thin twigs and curly tendrils 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame podcast
from News Talks, there'd be route time passes in the garden.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hey rude, hello, my friend. Have you looked at your
garden yet for passion fine hoppers.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
I have, I've looked. I haven't seen them yet, but
I suspect there might be a few games. And to
be honest, I'm leaving town for a couple of weeks.
I'm heated to the US this week to cover the election.
We're going to be broadcasting nextweek from the US. But
I'm not totally confident that I can rely on my
wife's support to go out and get all the passion
Ryan hoppers while I'm away, so I could have something
a nasty surprise that awaits me when I return.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
No, I think he'll be right, because usually it's at
the end of this month. But I just want to
be ahead of people that are listening and their problems
with these things. And also I just want to say
we found them now in christ to little rotters. They're
about Yeah, they're about one hundred meters away from my house, bugger,
So yeah, there you go. Anyway, these are those lazy

(01:03):
wings massas people call them. They're actually suck sucking ugs
actually and the passion Ryne office and they come out
let's say October November about this time that they start
to hatch. And at the moment you might not see anything,
but if you keep looking on the new plants that
are they like to sit on, you know, their favorite
their favorite hosts. Have a look because once they're really young,

(01:27):
this is really good. You can actually spray them with
a really cool insectu site just simply from a and
if you're like a fly, spray right. And the reason
is they're so small they can't jump away, and if
they do jump away, they jump through the clothes that
you made in front of their house.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Ah yeah, okay, so if I've made that.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Clothes, yeah, well this is the point. If you if
you're away, that can be a bit tricky. But if
you're you might find if it's a bit later, you
can still do that because before they become too big,
you can actually hammer them with that particular aerosol can
It's very simple. So that is the number one thing
for now. And I think a lot of people in
the northbounds and now also in the Southbounds will need

(02:10):
to know all this. There's of course another thing later
on in the year that you can actually get the
eggs out, but I'll talk about that when it happens
in autumn time. That is a different gig again. But
don't forget just a simple aerosol kend it to use
for flyesprey will do it and make the cloud do
it on a nice wind still morning when the cloud
stays in front of their little little favorite host plant,

(02:32):
you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah, and like it won't it won't poison my passion
for it. I know that seems silly, but it's it's
not going to come back to get me.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
No, I'll tell you, because thats that spray will be
gone in probably twenty four hours in terms of residual action.
But the stuff that went on their bodies will stay
on their bodies, and that is the good thing, very good.
So no, there's no no hussles with that at all.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Okay, very good, Thank you, sir. Road climb passed in
the garden for us. We'll put his little advice there
up on the News Talks.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
He'd be website for more from Saturday Morning with Tam.
Listen live to News Talks. A b from nine am Saturday,
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