Garden Pests and Diseases: Friend or Foe?, 1 by Night_Bloom

Night_Bloom wrote:
paani - blasting the plant with a hose is fairly effective for aphids, because most drown and those without wings that don't drown have too hard a time getting back up on the plant. The "mummies" might also protect the wasps inside if they get blasted off, which would be a good thing, because presumably they'd still hatch and get any aphids that escaped the hose treatment.

The only time for me that hosing aphids off didn't work was with my beans, and that was because the aphids had help - carpenter ants. I'd hose the aphids off, but gosh darn it if the ants didn't find some and put them back on the beans - hee - it became a mini war with neither of us backing down. But usually hosing off works quite well and no harm no foul to any other insects in your garden.

Hopefully after a hosing, your lady beetles will show up soon to get any new arrivals. It's kind of cool to see the mummies form though isn't it?

Here's a picture of the carpenter ants "gaurding" their aphids (just before I blasted them off that is - hee).