Caring for Petunias

[sherryinutah]

I live in an apartment and I don't often plant flowers; however, this year I decided to slap some nice little petunias in a large pot on my front porch.

I chose petunias because I thought they were low maintenance annuals.  Imagine my surprise when I found holes being eaten in the flowers and small black dots/insects on the leaves.

I don't really care what the insects are; however, I would appreciate anyone who could offer a home remedy or insecticide that is safe for plants and not-so-safe for whatever is eating them.

Thank you and have a great day. 

[BlackSheepNY]

I live in an apartment and I don't often plant flowers; however, this year I decided to slap some nice little petunias in a large pot on my front porch.

I chose petunias because I thought they were low maintenance annuals.  Imagine my surprise when I found holes being eaten in the flowers and small black dots/insects on the leaves.

I don't really care what the insects are; however, I would appreciate anyone who could offer a home remedy or insecticide that is safe for plants and not-so-safe for whatever is eating them.

Thank you and have a great day. 

I hear you when you say you don't really care what the insects are - BUT... that insect is probably why your Petunias have holes.  They're being eaten by whatever that little black bug is.  In order to know what to do for the plant, you've got to first find out what the insect is.  Do you have any place close to you that sells plants (like a Lowe's or Home Depot)?  You could show someone there what's going on and they may be better equipped to tell you what those bugs are.  After that, you might do a search on the internet to find a "natural remedy" to the little monsters.

[BlackSheepNY]

I found a part of this article that was quite interesting:

"In caring for petunias you may encounter a few petunia pests. Horn worms like to bore holes into newly formed flower buds and, to add insult to injury,they leave their black droppings all over the plant."  If you click on the words "Horn worms," it will take you to another page.

Here's the article:  http://www.botanical-journeys-plant-guides.com/petunia-pests.html