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!

[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/

[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.

[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!

[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.

[FaithHopeLove]

Neem Oil

[ArcherB]

Are your tomatoes infested? If not, I'd pull the borage or any other plants that are attracting the pests.

[gatorgoat]

Originally Posted by danielnc84

I am looking for something that will kill Aphids dead in their tracks.

For fast knock down, malathion.

I guess black eyed peas are notorious here in the south for having severe aphid infestations. Seems the earlier you plant them the bigger problem you have. As is my forte, the black eyed peas were the only thing I got planted early. Almost overnight my young plants were devastated, absolutely covered in aphids. I broke out the neem oil and gave them a good wash down but it didn't seem to be doing the job I'd hoped. My usual first place to look for solutions is the University of Florida Ag Department. They do a good job of recommending organic and low poison solutions, as well as main stream poisons. As far as knock down stuff, Malathion was the rec. I went ahead and bought some after doing a good bit of reading to alleviate my concerns. Then I decided to give the neem a little more time to do the trick. I reapplied it after about 10 days and it seems to have done the trick. My precious black eyed peas have sprung back to life with just the two neem applications. So the malathion is held in reserves, for now.