Aphids, Aphids, Aphids

Where the heck do they come from, I found one leaf covered with them took off the leaves and sprayed the rest with oil, soap, and water, two days later plants were covered with them. I spent 9hrs taking each one to the bathroom for a soap bath under the shower, scrubed my room down, took almost every leaf off and put in plastic bag outside, sprayed all plants with the oil, soap and water mix. today they are back.

The come from ants who are "farming" them for the nectar they produce to take back to the nest and feed the babies.

Sprinkle powdered Sevin around the base of the plant between the trunch and the soil and the ants will take it back to the next as they crawl down. Taking it back to the next will kill the whole colony.

Drench (before the Sevin treatment) the pot with Bayer's Advanced Formula for Tree and Shrub. You have to kill the ants or they will keep coming back. The Imidocloprid in the Drench will also kill anything else in the pot...like root mealies.

Just my M.O.....Hope something works for you.

Carol

Carol I have no ants, and they are all in pots in my plant room

They must just love you, Doris!! I get them on my hibiscus. I use a few squirts of palmolive dish soap in a hand sprayer and it seems to work well. One year I put some on a hose end sprayer to do my huge grapefruit tree that was covered in them. I had soap suds all over!! It was so funny! But it killed them dead.

Doris, the systemic Bayer works but I dont like to use it alot inside during the winter that much...good luck since I usually dont get aphids until around late January in the breezeway..not looking forward to it either....also I do know they like warmer temps so Im leaving the breezeway in the high 40s right now...Judy

Carol, is that drench suitable for seedlings??

As long as they have some adult leaves, yes.

Check your pots. I have never heard of aphids without ants.

Imidocloprid is the same flea stuff we put on our dogs...it is perfectly safe, so far.

I had a pot of plants in the house for over a month, maybe close to two months and one of the plants died. I had no idea what was to come when I pulled the dead plant out, but by the hundreds, the ants came rolling out. They were all over my arms. It wasn't fun, but in the end, I put a bait trap on top of the soil and I haven't seen any lately. They could still be in their little colony just waiting to come out again. I hope not. So far, no aphids.

Well maybe they are NOT Aphids, they are very small pale yellow, they do not move when touched, I tried to get a picture but they were too blurred, I did check a picture of Aphids and I didn't see those black antlers in the back that they mention .

Maybe scale?...I had scale on a variegated umbrella plant and it was infected..are you getting a sap like spray on the leaves or whatever the plant is sitting on?....just a thought...and sometimes aphids dont move when you touch them....Judy