In the summer I bought three hardy mums for my garden. I kept them in their individual pots until it got really cold outside and all the blooms had died off. After I had them indoors for a few weeks I noticed these ugly black spots on the branches starting from the soil and creeping upwards. I trimmed all the plants and sprayed them with Safers soap. The bugs disappeared and now they are back only on the original trimmed twigs. They don't go on the leaves only the stems. Help. What kind of bugs are they? They look almost like black fly specks. Yikes.

spider mites.I use safers insect soap& it gets what needs to be gone pretty well.
did you remove the paper wraps they stick those pots in?sometimes nursey stuff has critters travel.I try to remeber to keep away from ine a few days to be sure are clean.most times I'll soak my trades a bit in a bleach water solution to zap some of that.also living up north your air is dryer they will hold over to spring better if in a cooler room in house.when I lived IndplsI use to keep them set by back slideing glass door,but were spoiled.I used a grouping of plant lights& adjusted their angle all the time.I later would store them in their pots on their sides under deck against house under hay,would lay 2-3 of them mulch bags across with a few bricks and was removed out in May.I'm glad to NOT go through all that now.
you should check kings mums out& they have some now that will withstand your temps grown in ground

http://www.kingsmums.com/

njoynit,

thanks so much for your reply. I always thought that spider mites are red? Or do they come in black also? I removed the foil wrapping and have been spraying them with Safers. Bleach is also a good idea. I will check on them next year ;-)and do the bleach thing on them. It's funny, though, these bugs only go to the new shoots and then only on the bottom half. Any idea?
Again, thanks a bunch for your help. Have a Happy and Save New Year. Peace, eve ^..^~~~~~~~