Aphids

kkalasa 4/30/2010, 9:07 pm

Now I have aphids. Arghh!

I sprayed some organic bug killer but what about lady bugs? They sell them at the gardening store, would the bug spray kill the lady bugs if I put them in my garden? Has anyone else used ladybugs? How effective are they?

Retired Member 1 4/30/2010, 9:26 pm

Personally, I wouldn't use both insectacide and lady bugs. Plus, in order for lady bugs to stay around your garden, you have to have aphids. Otherwise they'll go to your neighbours who do.

I've never introduced lady bugs into the garden, so I don't know how effective they are vs. insectacide. I have them on the sunflowers right now, and used soapy water to wash them off. That was 3 days ago and only very few are left.

kkalasa 4/30/2010, 10:50 pm

Can you tell me what you mean by soapy water? Is it dish soap or something else?

JonRigby2005 5/1/2010, 7:13 am

I kind of let my sunflower be the sacrificial lamb. I have ants farming aphids on my sunflower, and no sign of aphids on anything else so I let em be for now. That said I have been seeing a lot of ladybugs around and the aphid population is very small and has stayed that way.

Shoda 5/1/2010, 7:26 am

So far we have been lucky and haven't seen any aphids on our vegetables. However, a couple days ago we had a tree removed that was near our garden. I had left a water glass on a bench near where the tree removal took place. After, I noticed that the water was filled with floating aphids. I can only guess that they were on the tree and were shaken out during its removal (and they were dusted over our newly planted vegetable garden).

I think I will pick up some ladybugs as a first line of defense. Let us know what you try and what ends up working. This is the first time we are trying the bugs against bugs approach but it is worth a try.

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