Little Surprises

Around the St. Louis area, there's not a garden plant that seems as reliable, hardy, even indestructible as Yucca filamentosa. Slowly spreading, tolerating some shade, happily growing in our clay soils, never needing extra water, deer, rabbit, and woodchuck tolerant -- these plants always look good.

Except mine doesn't. I noticed this spring that it's been looking a bit tired and yellow. The other day I took a closer look and realized what the problem was.

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It's a pest of some kind!

They're everywhere on this plant! These are the little surprises that I do not appreciate.

 Not sure what they are either. Are they still nymphs? They must be...

They appear to be drilling holes into the leaves. Grrr.

As you can see, the plant is not looking too happy:

I'm thinking about cutting the entire thing to the ground and letting it all grow back. (I know this yucca will tolerate that because my neighbor's patch got mowed down and now looks great.) I'm not positive that it will eradicate the pests though. What do you think?


I was contemplating mowing the plant down anyway since it's encroaching on the Opuntia beds.

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