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How do you keep pests off from Rosemary? I bought a small Rosmarinus officinalis at a local nursery last summer, and it was healthy and bug-free, but after a few months of sitting on my porch, it acquired aphids, spider mites, and some sort of small winged pest I can't identify. So I sprayed it with an organic insecticidal soap advertised as being able to kill exactly those types of bugs. I've used it on almost all my other outdoor plants, and it's worked very well. However, it seems to only partially work on Rosemary due to its leaves, which curl down and inwards, greatly lessening the effectiveness of spray. Even when I try to spray "up" into the underside of the leaves, I found it very difficult to get the spray into these sheltered areas, allowing the bugs to flourish there while dying everywhere else.

My Rosemary's still alive, but almost all the leaves are now partially dead and pock-marked from the punctures of insects. What can I do to help it?

Cerin
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  • A photo could help. Rosemary has coriaceous leaves, and "smell", so it should not attract many insects. Maybe you are targeting the wrong target (spiders could eat the unknown bugs), and possibly there is a source of such pests in an other place, and the rosemary is just a landing point. – Giacomo Catenazzi Jan 03 '18 at 15:42
  • what part of the world are you in? – Bamboo Jan 03 '18 at 17:42
  • US, east coast, mid-atlantic region. – Cerin Jan 03 '18 at 21:56

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Most insects leave Rosemary well alone, they don't like it, but thrips or leafhoppers can be an issue. This is a link from the UK https://rosemaries.co.uk/TRSpests.html#R4 but it has a good image of a leafhopper, though if that's what the problem's been, yours may look a little different in the States; it also has some advice as to how to manage them organically. If its leafhopper, the problem would be worse under cover on a porch.

You'll note the link mentions Rosemary beetle, but so far as I'm aware, that's one pest you don't yet have over there, and were it those,they're pretty unmistakeable.

Bamboo
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