NEED HELP FAST! APHIDS ON TODAY'S DINNER!!!!!

Sorry to bust in on this thread but I need an answer FAST! I just cut my collard and mustard greens down to cook for dinner. Expecting COMPANY! The collards look great, but the mustard greens have these little white aphid looking things on the undersides of the leaves -- I suspect it's whitefly larvae, but may not necessarily be. Is there any way to safely clean these leaves so I can cook them for dinner? PLEASE HURRY YOUR ANSWER. I left all the leaves outside in the grass.

I was thinking to wash them in a bucket of soapy water BEFORE I even bring them inside to finish cleaning them.

HURRY! HURRY! HURRY! ANYBODY WHO CAN HELP!

hi gymgirl!

saw your post and remembered you from the old days in the coleus forum...

you can spray with a jet of water and use a veggie brush to brush the remaining bugs. outside. sloshing them around a bit in a bucket of water may help too.

there's a high "ick" factor, of course, but not much danger. i've washed many a bug off greens in my days as a chef- basically putting the greens into a sink of ice-water and swishing and lightly brushing until the bugs came off.

good luck and have a great dinner! i'm sure it will be fabulous.

happy new year and take care,

joy

I'm probably too late to help but I've read that submerging in a sink full of salt water makes the bugs turn loose and float to the top. I'd still rinse them several times after. Hope this helps somebody. My friend gifted me a lovely head of cabbage for my dinner.

Just an update on dinner: IT WAS A TOTAL HIT, Thanks to Farmerdill who saved the day!!! Here's what he told me to do:

Saltwater brine. I used two 18 gallon rubbermaid tubs: one for the brine, one for the rinse bath. I used SIX BOXES of salt to about 3 gallons of water. Enough salt in the water to float an egg (that I had to borrow from my neighbor since I had already boiled my last 4 eggs for breakfast!) I cut the leaves and dunked them down under the water. ANYTHING that was EVER alive became immediately DEAD as soon as it hit that salt water and floated to the top! I did all the collards first as they were hardly bothered by any pests -- it was my mustards that had the aphids. Mustards went in for a dunk and those aphids came right up! Also, three cutworms I had missed -- dead -- immediately!

One important thing I learned about the brine and the mustards -- that much salt will actually begin to "cook" the mustards so the brine bath was a much quicker process for them -- no soaking whatsoever -- mashe 'em down under the water, a quick swish, out, and rinse with a good blast from the garden hose on the undersides of the leaves to knock off the salt and the aphids.

Finally, all leaves dunked into the fresh water bath in the other tub. I mashed all the leaves down to the bottom of the tub and examined the water. Nothing was floating! Tah Dah!

Dinner was a success, and a good time was had by all!

Order yourself some Ladybugs for your garden.......they eat the aphids!
Master gardener

This message was edited Jan 18, 2009 1:57 PM