Year of the Aphids

I'm not particularly fussy when it comes to garden pest and I rarely do much to combat them. I figure I can make a few sacrifices to the hungry in order to keep everything in harmony. I've noticed this to be the year of the aphids. I've got black, brown, and green ones. Just noticed some super Jumbo green ones on some lupine buds where I've never had any problems before. They seem to be every where and masses of them are just popping up overnight. I'm thinking this might coincide with the zillions of ants that have been around. I've read that ants will "farm" aphids in order to collect the sweet honeydew they secrete. I've sprayed my honeysuckle vine because it was covered with them and they were disfiguring the flower buds. The rest of the garden I've been just trimming them off or blasting them with a spray of water.

Now that we've had some ants make their way into the house I'm thinking I need to address them. If I take care of the ants will the aphids go away? I wonder if ants will keep other insects from eating their aphid "herd"?

No the aphids will not go away if you get rid of the ants, they are not dependant on them.

Often an aphid outbreak means you have too much Nitrogen getting to the plants causing wonderful foliage growth and tasty treats for the aphids.

There are about a zillion critters who will eat the aphids including humming birds and ladybugs.

Soap sprays will also help as will a stream of water on the aphids. Before spraying make sure there are no beneficial insects or their larva on the plants already doing your work for you.

PoppySue, I understand completely. The aphids have been attacking my tomato plants with unrestrained zeal. After realizing I was losing the war by handpicking them, I finally broke over and bought myself a one gallon pump sprayer. ($9 at WalMart, and it works like a charm. Plus I know it doesn't have any "kill the world and take no prisoners" pesticide residue, which is why I don't use DH's sprayer, as I'm not sure exactly what's been in that thing.)

So I felt like a real farmer this morning, out there spraying my 'maters with soapy water. Sure beats picking off the critters by hand. The only other bug I encountered was a potato beetle, which unfortunately wasn't the least bit phased by soap and water. (WHERE ARE ALL THE LADYBUGS WHEN I NEED THEM???? )

Now here's a dumb question - can I/should I rinse the leaves off now? Or will the soap/water mixture harm the foliage in any way? And (after the fact) I'm guessing it doesn't matter what kind of soap you use? I just squirted some plain, clear mild liquid handsoap into the water.....

Actually, the kind of soap does matter, as soaps with fatty acids do a much better job than, say, dish soap (though detergents do a good job) The hardness of your water also makes a big difference. Hard water will curdle the soap and make it far less effective. if this happens than put some vinegar in the water to soften it. Castile soap and Safer's are about the best out there. Dr Bronner's peppermint soap is also quite effective.

A hummingbird feeder or two in your tomato patch will also help emensly. Did this last year because we had about 75 tomatoes covered with aphids and not enough ladybugs or lacewings for the job and the hummers came by and within 4 days cleaned up the tomato plants

Soap spray will kill ladybug larva BTW and only works on soft bodied insects so that is why the beetles are not effected, they are hard bodied.

Funny... last year was the year of the hords of Ladybugs for us! They were so bad you couldn't go outside with out being pelted with them! It was horrible, I used to like them... then I was finding them like roaches all through to winter crawling around inside my house.... now here they are again, not so bad yet, but every wood area you look closely at you'll find some. And to think I was going to buy a lady bug house last spring, to shelter them through the winter, then summer and most of the way through winter I couldn't get rid of them! They're every kind, ones with no spots, ones with lots of spots, big spots, small spots, and every variation on that! Why?

My biggest pest right now is caterpillars. The bad ones. They come like an army and eat an entire rose bush. Dh and I killed over 100 by hand today. I found a place in Washington state that sells good nemotodes. We're going to try it..Who knows. I've had aphids on the water plants this year. I just spray them off and the fish eat them LOL

ohiorganic,very silly question but I do not know.
What is a hummimgbird feeder? How does it look?

cristina

Cristina... url for hummingbird feeder... http://www.perky-pet.com/

MaVie, thanks so much , now I know what they look like and if I can't find one ,I may make one up !

cristina