Aphids

**jimmy cee** 12/12/2013, 9:55 pm

I read and hear about spraying aphids with water, spray bottle of water hose.
Question ? how does this work ? does the spray knock them off ? and if it does do they return ?
Does the force from the spray damage their little bodies ?
Always been curious about this one.

**sanderson** 12/12/2013, 11:30 pm

Jimmy, There's so much written about aphids. The water hose worked good on my roses, knocks most of them off. I start at the top working towards the bottom.

But some veggies are too fragile to blast with water. I tried the dish soap-cooking oil-baking soda gentle spray and it really reduced the numbers. I finally had to resort to Neem oil on my summer squash and tall tomatoes. But Neem should be used at dawn and dusk if you have bees.

**jimmy cee** 12/13/2013, 8:11 am

Do (can) they return after being washed off ?

**sanderson** 12/13/2013, 2:27 pm

Not so much on the roses because they are tall. But I think some crawled or flew back on the veggies, or else new ones hatched. Let's see how dstack does with his pepper spray!!

dstack 12/18/2013, 2:32 pm

sanderson wrote:Not so much on the roses because they are tall. But I think some crawled or flew back on the veggies, or else new ones hatched. Let's see how dstack does with his pepper spray!!

I'm afraid to speak too soon. Let's just say that since I've started using the spray the bugs have not returned to the cuke seedlings (knock on wood!). Wink

But whatever bugs I keep finding on the fennel are laughing at my spray. rofl

So I'll dig around in my bug book again to find an organic repellent that works in the fennel patch. And I'll have to see if I have a camera that will get a good photo of these. They're beige, and I can only see them through a magnifying glass. They always first appear on the newest growth of the fennel fronds that are just starting to push out. The only sure way of killing them is spraying either 70% rubbing alcohol or 3% H202, which I rinse off after 45-60 minutes. Of course I don't want to keep doing this as I know it can't be good for the organisms in the MM. The fennel handles it pretty well.

**sanderson** 12/18/2013, 3:49 pm

dstack, I wouldn't worry too much about H2O2 as it breaks down to H2O and O2! You are only spraying, not pouring in on the MM.

landarch 12/18/2013, 6:55 pm

I had problems with aphids on some butterfly milkweed plants this past summer in my pollinator garden...ladybug adults and larvae as well as parasitic wasps moved in and wiped them out in a few days.

I had another infestation a month or two later and just decided to blast them off the plants with a hose and they really never came back strong or caused much damage. These were Oleander Aphids.

Aphids Wasp10

audrey.jeanne.roberts 12/19/2013, 12:09 am

I'm battling aphids in my greenhouse at the moment. They hit my mini bell peppers really hard. I cut back quite a bit as they were pretty leggy and overgrown. They were so loaded with fruit that I was waiting to cut them back but had to and I sprayed what was left. My kale is looking awful, my first spray wasn't working, I made a different recipe today and pretty much fried them :-( Oh well. I have a different type of bug on the eggplant but the sprayed killed them perfectly so fingers crossed I'll have that one at least nailed.

The. Battle. Never. Ends.

**sanderson** 12/19/2013, 12:27 am

Aphids in that beautiful green house? Sacrilege!

You didn't by any chance snap a photo of the critters on the eggplant. Wonder if it was the same thing that I battled all summer? What ever I had would pierce the flower stems and they would fall off.

audrey.jeanne.roberts 12/19/2013, 11:00 am

sanderson wrote:Aphids in that beautiful green house? Sacrilege!

You didn't by any chance snap a photo of the critters on the eggplant. Wonder if it was the same thing that I battled all summer? What ever I had would pierce the flower stems and they would fall off.

I'm sure there will still be some on the plant as I didn't spray it too thoroughly, I'll take pics this morning. I'm heading out there to uncover the boxes now.
aj

audrey.jeanne.roberts 12/19/2013, 11:35 am

Here's the best picture I could get, I just couldn't get close enough to see them without it being blurry. The leaves are yellowing as you can see in the background, but I'm still getting flowers and have young fruit on the plant. So far my Japanese eggplant in the large box is staying really healthy (fingers crossed).

They're larger than aphids, similar body shape, and rust colored:
Aphids Photo-7_zps2bd91eb9

**sanderson** 12/19/2013, 3:20 pm

I have a hard time getting close ups, also. Your eggplant's alive!!

Mine froze out in one of the beds! Next year maybe in a pot so I can move it into the green house.
Aphids Eggpla10

The bug - supposed to be a friendly. Maybe it wasn't the culprit. You can see a hole in the flower stem in the foreground.
Aphids Eggpla11

CapeCoddess 12/19/2013, 6:03 pm

I have these guys on the lettuce & kale in my bay window: Aphids Photo511

I have no idea what they are. Then there are others with wings flying around in there. I'm ready to harvest everything and then throw the pots and MM outside into the freezing nite. That'll show 'em. Mad

CC

CapeCoddess 12/19/2013, 6:04 pm

Shoot...I just noticed it's not freezing here tonite... Rolling Eyes

...
Back to the drawing board.

CC

**sanderson** 12/19/2013, 6:40 pm

CC, I think I am now convinced not to bring anything inside to over-winter. There are enough pests be battle during the other 9 months! Freeze, pests, freeze! Twisted Evil

**camprn** 12/20/2013, 7:11 am

Sanderson, that middle photo of the eggplant leaf has a nymph of some sort (can't tell from here what) and not what ever bored into the blossom.

CapeCoddess 10/18/2014, 6:27 pm

The past 2 yrs I have noticed a correlation between excess nitrogen and aphids in my garden. I just wrote 5 examples of this but lost it...
Mad

CC

Sponsored content

Aphids

Aphids

Re: Aphids

Re: Aphids

Re: Aphids

Re: Aphids

Re: Aphids

Re: Aphids

Re: Aphids

Re: Aphids

Re: Aphids

Re: Aphids

Re: Aphids

Re: Aphids

Re: Aphids

Re: Aphids

Re: Aphids

Re: Aphids

Re: Aphids


	Hello Guest! Welcome to the official Square Foot Gardening Forum. There's lots to learn here by reading as a guest. However, if you become a member (it's free, ad free and spam-free) you'll have access to our large vermiculite databases, our seed exchange spreadsheets, Mel's Mix calculator, and many more members' pictures in the Gallery. Enjoy.