Any Commerical Aphid Killer?

[danielnc84]

I am looking for something that will kill Aphids dead in their tracks. I was at my brother in laws today and man does he have a serious aphid problem! Anything you can use to kill these pestie buggers.. He has already tried liquid sevin on them and that ofcourse didnt work at all!

[mdvpc]

I use green lacewings-they really do the job, you dont have to spray a toxic substance.

[danielnc84]

toxic or not i just want something that is quick reliable and effective. I dont do alot of the whole green stuff. I would rather just find a quality chemical that will get the job done!

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by danielnc84

toxic or not i just want something that is quick reliable and effective. I dont do alot of the whole green stuff. I would rather just find a quality chemical that will get the job done!

And you wonder why the issue? The only true "solution" to the problem is build up a large predatory population of lady bugs, lace wings, and predatory mites. But since you are not a "whole green stuff" kind of guy, those predators don't stand a chance. Since they don't stand a chance, nothing to stop the aphids.

All those predators are effective and available for sale the same as any chemical insecticide. They are more expensive, but have the added benefit of persisting once the population stabilizes.

If you insist on taking the short term chemical approach. That's fine. But keep in mind ants will spread aphids too. No spray will work unless you also deal with the ants which farm aphids. We milk cows. Ants milk aphids.

Now for biological approaches, I try to use trap crops. ie things that attract aphids but that aphids seldom actually kill. In my location that is sunflowers. Sunflowers are too tough to let aphids kill them, but the aphids around here really like them, especially when it starts getting hot and dry. So once I see a sunflower with aphids I simply put Diatomaceous Earth around the base of the plant in a circle barrier to discourage the ant protectors. That lets my predators go to town on them without having to fight with the ants. Those lady bugs reproduce, fly away, and pick off any starting aphid colonies elsewhere in the garden. Works about ~80% +/- of the time like a charm. The other 20% of the time I try to use some method that discourages aphids rather than kills them. Extremely hot home made hot pepper spray seems to do the trick. I take some super hots, put them in a blender with hot water and a bit of vodka. Then I filter the resulting mix with a coffee filter. Spray that on the plants being attacked and aphids have a tendency to find a weed somewhere to attack instead.

[mdvpc]

The problem with spraying for aphids is that you have to keep spraying and spraying and spraying. A cheap solution is spraying with home-made insecticidal soap.

[b54red]

I rarely spray for aphids because ladybugs will usually take care of them in short order; but sometimes the ladybugs don't show up in time or in great enough numbers to slow them down. I have found that a soapy water solution with a small amount of Permethrin will kill them but you will probably have to spray more than once as they are persistent little buggers and can have explosive population growth at times. Sevin is not a good poison for aphids since they are sucking insects.

Bill

[Lee]

Quick remedy for aphids... blast 'em off with water. The insecticidal soaps can work too as mentioned. Lady bugs usually show up the
next season... in my experience.
You can also just squish 'em all with your fingers. Kinda messy, but definitely therapeutic.
The biggest problem with the toxic route is that it will kill any beneficials, such as the lady bugs mentioned.
So, best thing is to hose 'em off or squish 'em all this season and let
the lady bugs that will move in deal with them next season. Sometimes, IPM takes time to get established, but it will work here in
NC for aphids!

Good luck!

Lee

[awsumth]

Is it on edibles? Bayer Advanced for fruits and vegetables works well. Buy the concentrate that says "rainproof in 1 hour" or "systemic"; it's a soil drench which you pour into the soil surrounding the plant, and aphids fall right off shortly after.

[RayR]

The problem with Bayer Advanced (imidacloprid) is that it is highly toxic to bees and has been implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder

[awsumth]

Originally Posted by RayR

The problem with Bayer Advanced (imidacloprid) is that it is highly toxic to bees and has been implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder

Now that neonicotinoids are banned in Europe we shall see whether that is true or not by being able to see if colony collapse declines in Europe versus in the United States where it is not banned.

I personally have a hard time believing it does kill bees. After I've treated my milkweed plants, the aphids fell off right away. I noticed no decline in ladybugs elsewhere in the garden where aphids are controlled by the ladybugs. Even caterpillars who ate the plant two weeks after treatment were able to eat the entire plant and morph into butterflies. I've recorded some of them doing it! Imidacloprid does not seem to have a large effect on non-sucking insects.

Two days ago I read an article printed by Ars Technica saying another cause of colony collapse could be from removing all of the bees' honey and replacing it with corn syrup. Honey has many immune-boosting compounds that I believe help the bees survive much more than corn syrup.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/...lony-collapse/

[beeman]

Originally Posted by awsumth

Two days ago I read an article printed by Ars Technica saying another cause of colony collapse could be from removing all of the bees' honey and replacing it with corn syrup. Honey has many immune-boosting compounds that I believe help the bees survive much more than corn syrup.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/...lony-collapse/

So what would you say to someone who has never fed corn syrup, but still has CCD. There are many reasons for CCD, this is just one idea. Personally I have a feeling lack of diversity in the queen breeding might have some effect. You can't breed pure good stock from mongrels!

[coastal bend]

Ortho Flower,Fruit and vegetable insect spray will get rid of them. It will last for 7 days. I doubt you will have to spray again. It is also good for whitefly.Weather conditions can increes or depress Aphid populations.

[Vespertino]

I'm about ready to scream. I had a major aphid infestation on my rose that I thought I'd finally won. They're back and there's new aphids on my borage...

Water hose blast did not work.

Home-made garlic oil didn't work. I even tried rubbing cut garlic cloves over infested twigs. No effect.

Dawn detergent didn't work either.

I even tried squashing them on sight.

Lady bugs and lacewings aren't a good solution since this is isolated to one or two plants and I have an apartment balcony patio not a yard.

Then I bought fertilome triple action plus (neem + pyrethrin). It helped after repeated use- but just when I thought id won the battle I find a twig coated in 20 sphids out of the blue!!!

I'm really getting ticked off. Not long ago I picked off a cutter worm from my borage, in addition to new aphids there are leaf miners too. It seems my patio is becoming a pest magnet.

I'm really thinkining about getting a heavy duty insecticide to protect what few plants I have. I don't want to take any chances when one infested plant can bring down every plant I own on my teeny bit o greenspace.

[Lee]

Originally Posted by Vespertino

I even tried squashing them on sight.

Lady bugs and lacewings aren't a good solution since this is isolated to one or two plants and I have an apartment balcony patio not a yard.

Does this mean they survived your squishing? If so, squish harder!

With only one or two plants on a balcony, I would think this
is really the best solution... although it sounds like you might
have to do it every morning for a week to get it under control.

Do you have ants that are transporting the aphids to your plants? I've seen this before, especially on the purple hull cow peas.....

Good luck!

Lee

[Vespertino]

Originally Posted by Lee

Does this mean they survived your squishing? If so, squish harder!

With only one or two plants on a balcony, I would think this
is really the best solution... although it sounds like you might
have to do it every morning for a week to get it under control.

Do you have ants that are transporting the aphids to your plants? I've seen this before, especially on the purple hull cow peas.....

Good luck!

Lee

I'm wondering if the aphids that keep coming back are the angry ghost of the ones I smushed! Luckily I don't have any ants, so that at least makes things slightly less complicated.

On the bright side the aphids are under control again, and I've eradicated them from the borage. I think I just need to keep spraying more often than I was, and follow the advice to keep squishing them when I see them. As a precaution I'm spraying the tomato plants sparingly with the oil spray to prevent any aphids from jumping ship. I may step it up to a stronger spray if that doesn't work- I'll probably try the malathilon or the ferti-lome triple action II which is stronger than their triple action I that I'm using.