aphids on my nasturtiums!!!!!!!!!!

Help!!! My nasturtiums are being attacked by aphids. Is there a way to get rid of them without chemicals as I like to put the leaves and flowers in my salads? Of course, without the little suckers, as I don't think I want to eat them. Thanks for any suggestions, Diane

If you want no chemicals at all, just hose them off with a strong jet of water. You'll probably have to repeat on a fairly regular basis to keep them from building up again. Or you could use something like insecticidal soap, it's considered safe for use on food crops (although you'd want to wash the leaves off first of course!). You still may have to repeat the treatment a couple times because they reproduce at the speed of light, so if you miss even one, it'll turn into 100 again before you know it.

Yikes! They are creeping in on me here too ;) I usually just use Diatamaceous Earth - its natural & safe to eat (although we wash it off anyways). Just rub it on the leaves.
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2 cloves of garlic soaked over night in a quart spray bottle. After allowing garlic to soak shake and mist plants. Garlic is a natural insect repellent. And the residue left on the plant when it dries will give a little zing to the salad and is good for you.

I thought so. I've got to get garlic! Can we plant it next to the plants? Is that as effective?

Mix 4 ounces of mild shampoo in a gallon of water (1 oz per quart / liter) and spray it on the aphids.

I've seen online sites that sell ladybugs, usually about 1500 to 2000 insects per order. You might check your local nursery to see if there is a resource for lady bugs close by also.

The garlic is fairly effective planted with the desireables but takes a while to really do it from a distance. The spray is effective and on plants your not going to eat you can pour the mixture on the ground and the plants will pull the oil through out. I guess you could still eat it would just taste like garlic, not altogether a bad thing. Onions work well planted around other plants as a protector also.

When I grew garlic and had a sore throat I would pick a piece of the green sprout and chew it. POOF! No more sore throat. I eventually found out it was the garden that gave me the sore throat. Had to get rid of all hay I had turned under the soil. Hay mold.

Thanks for the help.  I'm going to try the garlic in water spray and I'll let know how it works.  Diane

Has worked well for me, I am about to start spraying my 6'+ tomato plant. I have a half dozen fruit I do not wish to share with bug or beast and the garlic fends off most. Also if sprayed around a door frame or windows will help prevent bugs coming in house. Just give it a little while and the smell will dissapate for you but will still deter bugs for days.

Thank you for the garlic method. I have had black aphids on my nasturtiums, they were so bad I just yanked the plants. Next time I will try that. I like to eat nasturtiums too...yum! If you haven't tried them you should, slightly peppery. Very cool looking in salads or on sandwiches.

This is so weird, I've never had aphids attack my nasturshums. They attack the roses that are right there above them, but they are never on the nasturshums. I thought they were immune or something. Or maybe it's the deer spray? It does have garlic in it. And the roses are really tall, almost to the second story window, because that is the only way I can have roses. They are the tall kind, and I have let them get really tall, and the deer have pruned them on the bottom.