INUNDATED with Red Aphids in SE PA

[soulsurv]

Thanks, Folks. Really appreciate your suggestions. I think the extraordinary wet season here in SE PA is just gonna infest us with whatever likes the damp. Thunderstorms every day for a week and super-heavy rains the weeks prior to that. VERY strange...thanks again
Sandy in PA

[gmagoo]

Originally Posted by soulsurv

I simply can not BELEIVE the horde of these small red bugs which have invaded my flower gardens (thankfully, not the veggies yet)!!! I have poured dozens of buckets of hot water mixed with bleach, soap, Listerine, you name it - and they just keep a'comin! Never had them before, and I'm guessing it's due to the very heavy recent rains of early June. Any suggestions that don't involve heavy commercial poisons. I even captured a Praying Mantis today and carried him to my garden, and said "Go ahead...make their day!"

I`m the caretaker of a green roof at a public tourism facility and I deal with aphids by spraying them with a good blast from a garden hose.It usually takes 4-5 days of blasting to get rid of them but it works.Just plain old water.Nothing else.

[TinaMcG]

Originally Posted by gmagoo

I`m the caretaker of a green roof at a public tourism facility and I deal with aphids by spraying them with a good blast from a garden hose.It usually takes 4-5 days of blasting to get rid of them but it works.Just plain old water.Nothing else.

That is an excellent suggestion that works for many pests, though not all. A blast with water is the first step in integrated pest management (IPM), which always opts for the least harmful solutions first.

Having said that though, I had a funny experience with this a few years ago. I knocked thousands of walnut caterpillars off our crabapple trees. Thirty minutes later, they were all marching back up the trunk of the tree! That's when I had to mix up a tank of Bt asnd I sprayed that. If the Bt hadn't worked, I would have used something stronger, but the Bt worked.

Many insects simply are not able to crawl back up on their host plant. Walnut caterpillars, not so much!

[EugeneOnegin]

Originally Posted by TinaMcG

Spray them directly with a neem-oil based spray (Safer brand makes one) or horticultural oil mixed to the growing season strength. Aphids are easy to control if you zap them directly, and you can't always rely on ladybeetles to take care of them all if you have a heavy infestation.

I had an aphid infestation indoors a couple years ago and neem oil did absolutely nothing to them. I sprayed it several times a week for a few weeks and it did not phase them in the slightest. I even completely submerged the plants upside down in a neem oil solution for 10 minutes per plant. It didn't help.

Pyrethrins wiped them out pretty fast. Or at least, reduced their populations enough that the plants weren't harmed. They would come back after a few weeks and then I would spray again. I couldn't seem to get them all, but I kept them at bay until I could move the plants back outside where the predators could manage them.