Aphids Galore!

[annalee2003]

Gah, they're everywhere!

Husband has been trying to grow peppers this year, and I have a small little collection of perennials and succulents taking up most of the room on our tiny balcony. I'm not sure of its been the drought, the heat, or what ... but aphids are all over our plants! I try to keep them at bay by either spraying the plant down with soapy water, or just by physically running my fingers gently along the leaves and wiping them off. I could clear the whole plant of aphids though, and the very next day the plant would be covered in them again.
I've thought about buying ladybugs, but I'm not even sure where I'd buy a bunch of them, or how to keep them on the plant without flying away (maybe netting?). Hopefully the weather will cool down soon and they will all just die off.

Anyone else have issues with aphids on their plants? Any other solutions to destroying the awful, sap sucking creatures, that might be helpful?

... That's my rant for today. Thanks for reading.

 

[Obsidian]

If you are ok with chemical pesticides, try some liquid sevin. It kills off aphids fast and more thoroughly then anything else I've tried.
If you are wanting to bring the plants indoor for the winter then this might be better http://www.bonide.com/products/product.php?category_id=609 its a systemic you use as a soil drench. I can't say if its safe for all plants but I use it on my houseplants and it works great. I finally got rid of a persistent case of scaly bugs and mealy bugs.

 

[nsmar4211]

I'm fighting whiteflies myself.

I find that plants that are stressed, either not enough sun (which might be your issue) or too much water (my issue...rain...) attract pests. With aphids, I discovered I had ants using my bean plants as an aphid nursery. Take a good look and see if you have ants walking around on the plants-if so, eliminate them and the aphids may not come back.

 

[CTAnton]

you might want to add some rubbing alcohol to your soapy water solution...somewhere in my travels I heard that helps a lot.....stressed plants make for aphids...quite often in the case of vegetables it's too small a pot and the plants dried out at some point...

 

[dixiedragon]

I like Safer's Insecticidal Soap.

I've read about ants herding aphids. It's very cool - unless it's happening to you.

 

[Susie]

If you are ok with chemical pesticides, try some liquid sevin. It kills off aphids fast and more thoroughly then anything else I've tried.
If you are wanting to bring the plants indoor for the winter then this might be better http://www.bonide.com/products/product.php?category_id=609 its a systemic you use as a soil drench. I can't say if its safe for all plants but I use it on my houseplants and it works great. I finally got rid of a persistent case of scaly bugs and mealy bugs.

^This for plants you don't intend to eat. Works well, and easy enough to treat a whole balcony full in a short afternoon's work. I would combine the Bonide with the liquid Sevin treatment on the leaves in case you are trading aphids with a neighbor.

 

[dixiedragon]

On a gardening forum I was on, members would trade their secret bug repelling recipes. One popular ingredient was the bugs that you were trying to repel. One recipe was water, Dawn dishwashing detergent, cayenne and ground-up Japanese beetles. Methinks there was an element of revenge in that.

 

[annalee2003]

All great advice, thank you so much!

No ants around, that I know of, thankfully. I'm pretty sure they're all just stressed out from the heat lately. And of course we've had very little rain (though i try to water as often as possible, not too much though) Days have been hot recently, while nights are kinda chilly. So I'm sure the sudden change in temperature isn't helping.

I might try the chemical route, since my soapy spray doesn't seem to be doing much.

I've heard of using dead bugs in the solution to spray onto the ones you're trying to get rid of. Something about certain pheromones being given off? I don't quite know. It's an interesting experiment at least.

 

[dixiedragon]

This is a bit counter-intuitive, but maybe get some aphid ATTRACTING plants. They may help draw aphids off of your "good" plants.

 

[fuzz-juzz]

If everything else fails, try chemical pesticide. Especially if it's not vegetables or something you will eat. You might find, once of treatment will be enough to keep them away for months.
Aphids are annoying as hell. Not only that they cause damage to plans, they can also bring diseases to plants.
They almost wiped out my potato patch, they infected it with some sort of virus.
I am not usually using pesticide, but this spring I gave in, and spayed them with pesticide, once. I've never seen one again and it's being 2-3 months. Bees and spiders are long back on my veggies, but not aphids.