Common Names: railroad vine, bayhops, beach morning-glory, seaside yam, goats foot, goats foot morning-glory, goats foot creeper
Origin: pantropical, including Florida and tropical and subtropical Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific Islands
As a beach morning glory plant owner, you may have noticed some tiny insects crawling around on the leaves and stems of your plant. Don’t worry, these little bugs are completely normal and part of having a healthy morning glory. In this article, we’ll identify the most common bugs found on beach morning glories and explain what they’re doing on your plant.
The Most Common Bugs on Beach Morning Glories
There are a few insects that really love munching on morning glories. Here are the main creepy crawlers you can expect to see:
Leaf Miners
Leaf miners are small flies that lay their eggs inside morning glory leaves. When the eggs hatch the larvae burrow tunnels and pathways through the leaf while feeding creating the tell-tale squiggly mines you see on leaves. The larvae are usually pale green or yellow in color.
Leaf miners don’t usually cause too much damage overall to the plant, though heavily infested leaves may turn brown and dry out. Pruning off infested growth can help reduce their numbers.
Leafcutter Caterpillars
The leafcutter caterpillar is the larval form of a medium-sized moth. These caterpillars are plump and green with white and black stripes along their body. As their name suggests, leafcutter caterpillars chew through morning glory stems and leaves, sometimes severing the entire leaf.
Leafcutter caterpillars are mostly active at night and like to hide in leaf shelters during the day. Handpicking the caterpillars is the best way to control them. Avoid using pesticides since the caterpillars only feed at night.
Golden Tortoise Beetles
This aptly named beetle is a bright and shiny gold color with an enlarged, flattened, transparent margin on its wings. The larvae are spiky and brown.
Tortoise beetles skeletonize morning glory leaves, leaving behind clear holes and patches as they munch. They can be handpicked off plants to reduce populations. Insecticidal soap may also help deter them. Luckily, they rarely cause significant damage overall.
Other crawlies
Other occasional pests on morning glories include
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Aphids – Soft-bodied, pear-shaped insects that cluster on stems and leaves. They extract plant juices and secrete sticky honeydew.
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Spider mites – Tiny reddish or yellow dots on the undersides of leaves. They form fine webs and cause stippling damage.
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Whiteflies – Tiny white flying insects that swarm and feed on sap. They cause yellow stippling on leaves.
Are These Bugs Harmful to My Plant?
For the most part, the bugs attracted to morning glories don’t seriously harm the plants when present in normal numbers. Leaf miners, caterpillars, tortoise beetles, and other critters are just part of having a morning glory in your garden.
In most cases, you can just tolerate their presence or manually remove any insect pests you spot. Here are some tips for managing bugs on your plant:
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Check plants regularly for signs of damage or heavy infestations. Catch issues early before they escalate.
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Knock caterpillars, beetles, and other large insects off the plant and drop them into soapy water.
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Prune off badly infested or damaged growth. This removes insects and improves air circulation.
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Hose down aphids and other small insects with a strong stream of water.
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Apply horticultural oil or insecticidal soap for heavy infestations. Use pesticides sparingly.
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Attract natural predators like ladybugs, lacewings, and birds to your garden for natural pest control.
As long as the plant is still producing healthy new growth, the bugs aren’t anything to worry about. A few chewed leaves here and there won’t significantly harm your morning glories. The plant will continue blooming and twining gracefully!
Why Are Bugs Attracted to Morning Glories?
Morning glories make a very attractive meal for many garden insects. Here are some reasons bugs can’t resist munching on your morning glories:
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Tender foliage and stems – The young, fresh growth of morning glories is soft and easy for insects to chew through.
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Thin protective cuticle – Morning glory leaves have a thin waxy cuticle, making them more vulnerable to piercing-sucking insects like aphids.
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Abundant sap – The sap in morning glory contains sugars and other nutrients insects love. Sap-sucking bugs like aphids thrive on it.
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Small defenses – Morning glories have limited structural defenses and chemical toxins, unlike plants like oak trees. This makes them an easy target.
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Big plant surface area – The sprawling growth habit of morning glories gives insects plenty of leafy real estate to explore and eat.
Basically, morning glories are the equivalent of an all-you-can-eat bug buffet! Their rapid growth and constantly renewing foliage offsets any damage by hungry insects.
When Should I Worry About Pest Problems?
In most cases, the insects on your morning glories are just a nuisance and won’t cause lasting harm. But in some situations, it may be necessary to take action against heavier infestations:
Signs it’s time to control pests:
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Holes and chewing damage on most leaves
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Stunted or reduced new growth
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Leaves yellowing or browning
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White crusty deposits on leaves or sooty mold (signs of sap-sucking pests)
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Webbing, soil debris, or sticky excrement (signs of larger infestations)
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Flowers or buds damaged or failing to open
Methods to get infestations under control:
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Remove badly infested leaves and stems.
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Use insecticidal soap, neem oil, or horticultural oils.
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Apply targeted pesticides if bugs continue multiplying.
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Place physical barriers like floating row covers.
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Introduce predatory insects like ladybugs or green lacewings.
With prompt treatment, you can get your morning glories bouncing back in no time! Proper identification and monitoring are key to staying ahead of any insect problems.
When to Leave the Bugs Alone
It’s also important to recognize when pest populations don’t justify control measures. Here are some cases where you may want to simply tolerate the insects on your plants:
✔ Normal damage only on a few leaves
✔ No major impact observed on plant growth
✔ Damage not spreading or increasing substantially over time
✔ Key plant parts like flowers and new growth aren’t affected
✔ Natural predators present to keep pest numbers in check
✔ The infested plant isn’t being grown for food production
Sometimes the damage bugs cause is purely cosmetic. As long as the overall vigor of your morning glories isn’t compromised, enjoy observing nature at work!
Gardening to Prevent and Control Pests
In addition to direct control methods, certain gardening practices can help deter insects and prevent infestations from developing in the first place:
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Pick off egg clusters, cocoons, caterpillars, etc. when seen.
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Use row covers as a physical barrier against flying and crawling insects.
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Rotate morning glories to a different bed each year. This disrupts pest life cycles.
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Clean up fallen leaves/debris that provide shelter for insects.
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Encourage natural predators like birds by providing food, water and shelter.
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Fertilize conservatively. Excess nitrogen can make plants more vulnerable.
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Water at the base of plants, not from overhead. This keeps foliage drier.
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Thin overcrowded plantings to improve air circulation.
It’s impossible to prevent all bugs. But these tips can help stack the deck against heavy infestations taking hold. Vigilance and adaptability are key to staying one step ahead of plant pests.
When to Call in a Professional
Most of the time, the small insects on beach morning glories can be easily managed with basic home treatments. But in some cases, it pays to have an expert take a look:
Signs it’s time to call a pro:
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You’ve tried several control methods with no success.
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The infestation is rapidly spreading to other plants in your landscape.
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You’re finding large nests or excessive webbing.
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You don’t know what insect is causing damage.
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The plant is declining despite your efforts.
A professional can identify the specific insect pest, pinpoint areas that need treatment, and recommend products best suited to your situation. They have access to more powerful control options than what’s available to homeowners.
Getting an early consultation can pay off by quickly solving a problem before major plant damage occurs. Investing some money upfront can end up saving your morning glories!
Enjoying Your Morning Glories, Insects and All!
A few insects here and there are simply part of
Geographic Distribution and Habit
Railroad vine is one of the most widely distributed beach plants in the world. Its exact native range is obscure, but railroad vine is now found in subtropical and tropical zones worldwide, including the West Indies, the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. In the United States, it occurs along the Atlantic coast of Georgia and Florida, and along the Gulf coast from Florida to Texas. It is primarily found in coastal habitats, especially dunes and beaches, and is rarely found inland. The moving sand and salt spray make the beach environment a harsh one, and the plants that live there are specialized to colonize that environment.
This is a tap-rooted, herbaceous, creeping (rarely twining), perennial vine that produces a milky latex when broken. It grows rapidly and usually does not form a dense cover on Floridas beaches. The common name “railroad vine” refers to its tendency to form “tracks” of horizontal stems more than 100 feet long.
The stems are succulent, becoming tough and fibrous with age. Nodes are mostly 3 to 7 inches apart. Adventitious roots often form at the nodes, helping to anchor the vine. Stems are typically horizontal, but when the plant encounters something to climb upon, they may occasionally twine upward. Plants usually are between 6 to 16 inches in height.
The leaves are simple, alternately arranged, dark green, rather leathery, and glabrous (hairless). Leaf shape is quite variable in this species but is typically ovate (egg-shaped), orbicular (circular), or oblong (parallel-sided). The leaf base is truncate to shallowly cordate (heart-shaped), and the apex is usually notched to deeply cleft, but sometimes rounded or truncate. The epithet pes-caprae is Latin for “goats foot,” referring to the notched leaf apex (resembling the cloven hoof of a goat). The leaf blades are usually 3.0 to 4.75 inches long and 3.5 to 6.0 inches wide, and they are often folded upward from the midrib. The veins on the leaf blades are pinnate and finely reticulate (net-like), typically more visible on the leaf undersides than on the upper surface. The petioles (leaf stalks) vary in length ranging from 1 to 6 inches. On young leaves, the petioles are commonly reddish in color, becoming yellowish-green as they age. There is a pair of nectar-producing glands on the underside of each leaf blade at its juncture with the petiole. These nectaries are red on new leaves, turning black with age, and attract ants, which defend the plant against herbivorous insects.
Flowers may be produced year-round but are most abundant during the warmer months (from spring to fall), and less common in winter. Each flower lasts only one day, opening at sunrise and closing by early afternoon on sunny days. On cloudy days, flowers often open and close later. Railroad vine is an obligate out-crosser, meaning the flowers are self-incompatible (self-pollinated flowers result in very few or no fruit). Insects attracted to the large nectaries of the showy flowers assist in cross-pollination. The primary pollinators are bees, but butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, wasps, and ants may also visit the flowers.
Flowers are borne in one-to-several-flowered cymes in the leaf axils. They are upright and funnel-shaped, consisting of five fused petals, often with notches along the edges at the juncture between adjacent petals. Flower color varies from pale pink to lavender to reddish purple (very rarely white), typically with a darker rose-purple throat radiating as bands up the midline of each petal, which serves as a nectar guide for pollinating insects. Corollas usually measure about 1.5 to 2.5 inches long and wide, and are borne on pedicels 1 to 2 inches long. The sepals are leathery, hairless, and unequal—the outer two shorter and ovate to elliptic and the inner three longer, almost circular in shape, with a rounded apex ended in a very small abrupt point (mucro).
The fruit are ovoid to flattened-globose, dehiscent capsules, usually measuring 0.5 to 0.75 inches long and wide. Capsules are borne on elongated pedicels with a persistent calyx. They are green and smooth when immature splitting into four valves at maturity. Opened capsules are leathery, brown on the exterior, and beige on the inside, becoming more brittle and gray with age. Each valve holds a single seed, which is rounded to trigonous (three-sided), covered with dense, velvety hairs, and 0.25 to 0.35 inches long. The seeds, sometimes referred to as seabeans or drift seeds, are adapted for dispersal on ocean currents and are sometimes collected after washing up on beaches.
Railroad vine is propagated by stem cuttings, seed, and tissue culture. Cuttings are generally faster and easier, and they have a higher transplant survival rate than plants produced from seed. Cuttings should be planted directly into a well-drained substrate with at least one node buried. Cuttings usually root within 7 to 10 days when grown under mist. To avoid rotting, cuttings should be removed from the mist to harden off as soon as they are rooted and may be transplanted to individual pots when roots are sufficiently developed. Gardeners can place cuttings to root in pots or directly into the ground and hand-water them until roots are well-developed. Seeds must be abraded or scarified before they will germinate. In the wild in Florida, seeds germinate much of the year except in winter.
Uses, Planting, and Maintenance Guidelines
Being native to dunes and beaches, railroad vine can tolerate intense heat, full sun, and poor soils, but it requires excellent drainage. It is used to stabilize beaches and dunes but may also be cultivated as an inland groundcover.
In south Florida, plant cuttings from March through October to form a groundcover on beaches, dunes, and landscapes. Railroad vine may be used on slopes up to 20°, and on steeper slopes if stable. Space small plants 2 to 3 feet apart, and 3 to 5 feet apart for larger plants. Plant with the top of the root ball slightly below the soils surface. Irrigate at the time of planting and for several weeks thereafter unless there is regular rainfall. Providing regular water and controlling weeds will speed establishment of new plantings. For faster and denser coverage, redirect errant stems back into the growing area. Dense coverage is possible in two to three years on moist well-drained soil.
If inundated with salt water even for a short time, the aboveground portion will die back but typically regrow from the roots. However, long periods of saltwater inundation may kill the entire plant. Strong offshore wind may temporarily damage plants on beaches and dunes, causing scorched leaves and stems.
Ornamental groundcover plantings of railroad vine generally do not last for more than eight years. Insects, diseases, and improper management may hasten their decline. In the worst of landscape conditions, railroad vine longevity may not exceed a year. For best growth as a groundcover, the soil must be free-draining and irrigation kept to a minimum once the plants are established. Provide plenty of space and avoid interplanting with other small, low-growing species. Otherwise, fast-growing railroad vine is likely to overgrow smaller plants and require frequent pruning to keep it in bounds. In the landscape, railroad vine can tolerate occasional pruning, which encourages more branching. It does not tolerate shade and is easily out-competed by large plants that exclude light. In the drier winter and spring months, the plants may appear scraggly, but they will quickly recover at the start of the rainy season.
Morning Glories and Tiny Bugs Quiet Moments
FAQ
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