Can aphids be prevented?

I have just noticed that one of my butterfly weed plants has got aphids on it. LOTs of them, green ones, yellow ones, and orange ones. Yuk! I hosed off the plant and sprayed it with insecticide oil. Is there anything we can do to prevent aphids?

I have another question about aphids and some people might find the question silly :-) Hosing off the plants is the advice everybody gives for treating aphids, but exactly what happens to the aphids that are knocked off the plants by water? Do they die? Or do they come back to the plants?

I thought water just blasts them off temporarily. Attracting ladybugs is the best defense. The insecticide oil should hold them off for awhile. I just pinch them between thumb and forefinger, I know they won't be coming back from that.

Found this on garden web, have no idea if it works

This is a permanent solution.

"Plant allium (chives, garlic, onions) as companion plants surrounding or bordering the plants which are susceptible to aphids. The allium has to be in the ground year round. This method has kept my garden aphid-free for 15 years, even though it is neighbored by aphid-laden trees."

I assume you mean Butterfly Weed as in Asclepias ???
If so, I would leave the aphids alone, since there might be Monarch Butterfly larvae on the plants and you may injure them in the process.

My Asclepias are covered in aphids right now, but nothing else is, so maybe the larvae eat them too. This happens with asclepias a lot, but then the aphids seem to vanish after a few days.

I would continue to squirt the Aphids with the hose IF they are really bothering you that much, remember IF these insects are on one plant only, then they are leaving other plants off their menu, attracting wildlife into the garden is always good, both for you and the wildlife, ladybirds, birds, frogs/toads etc are all good things to have around the garden as they help keep the balance right natures way rather that trying to fight it all summer, but if you are really infested, then soft soap/oil sprays work for a day or so, companion planting is also good and works well also,as does the squashing between your fingers. to answer the question about what happens to the aphids when they fall off the plants as you spray, they either drown, are killed by the power of the hose blast or crawl back onto the plants again, they are very soft bodied and may even be eaten by any ground crawling insects, I know my Dad used to plant garlic cloves in the soil when he planted roses and he never had a problem with greenfly or any other aphids as the roses took the smell from the Garlic up into the foliage of the roses but it never harmed either the rose perfume or the plants and we always had a good crop of garlic each year, other companion plants have the same effect, so it works well. good luck, hope all this helps you out. WeeNel.

Another companion plant is marigolds and nastursium, as well as oiions. Something with the essebtial oils vapors aphids dislike. You can always try A bayer product containg imachlorprid. You drench the ground Once a year and it's taken throught the plant and kills the bugs. It doesn't hurt beneficial insects becasue the chemicals are internal.And wow, does my spelling suck today. But, you get the idea.

LOL !

It would be nice if plants could be inoculated against insect pests the same way vaccines prevent measles and so forth, but unfortunately we have to deal with insect pests after they infest.

I'm new, so I hesitate.
But, no offence, I never had aphids in the garden before I had nasturtiums. I had them twice indoors, and I used my own spray of soapy water and then stripped the plant with my fingernails, but I'm kinda joking, when it comes to the outside.
I made the same spray of soapy water for the nasturtiums, and I don't think it had much influence.
Also, I bought the lady bugs. They were mucho $$$$, and I let them free, and it was charming, but they were gone in days, and I bought so many! I'd have to spend a fortune to buy a new container every two or three days.

Sorry. I hope you solve your problem. I guess this was kinda negative.

Maybe I was just lucky, but I tried those AphidChaser things on my roses this spring when they had really bad aphids and seemed to crawl back on the plants as fast as I could hose them off. To my very great surprise they seemed to work, after about a week no more aphids. They're kind of expensive though and like I said, maybe it was just coincidence the aphids disappeared shortly after I put the AphidChasers on.

http://www.shopping.com/xPF-Aphid-Chaser

I assume these are aphids on my A. tuberosas. The aphids don't seem to be on anything else. Any idea what the aphids become if allowed to flourish? Are they harmful to anything but plants?

Your aphids wont go to anything other than SOME type of plants, they dont turn into anything other than more aphids, some other bugs like caterpillars turn into either moths or butterflies, so there is a difference, as for your plant, the foliage looks a bit sticky from the picture, but then again, maybe just the light on the foliage, give it a blast with the hose to remove both the aphids and any sticky substance on the foliage if any, the sticky stuff is the aphids excrement (toilet) and this in turn can attract other insects like ants of even cause mould to form on the plant which will effect the pores on the foliage from getting air and moisture, just check your plants over as you wander around the garden and if you first see any signs of these tiny creatures, best thing to do is run your finger and thumb up the stems or leaves and this kills the aphids, they are very soft bodied and dont bite or harm us in any way, be brave, your a gardener remember, we have to deal with all sorts of creepy crawlies in our time, ha, ha, ha, seriously, you will soon recognise any problems as you get to know more bout your own garden, go to your library or book store for garden books to look at, these are a mind field of surprises and information about all aspects of gardening. good luck. WeeNel.

If they're on your Asclepias then they're probably milkweed aphids and I never see them on anything but milkweed, so no need to worry about them spreading to anything other than milkweed. I've found when I grow milkweed & its relatives it's next to impossible to keep aphids off them entirely so I usually just hose them off every few days--doesn't completely get rid of them but keeps the population low enough that they don't do a ton of damage to the plants.

As long as bugs do not get too out of control, I would rather not use chemicals on the plants. It looks like I will grow lots of onions and garlics next year. Will post questions next spring regarding how to grow garlics :-)

Thank you all for the reply.

This message was edited Aug 20, 2008 6:55 PM

There are lots of ways to help with the problems of aphids without the use of chemicals, if you have a small amount of aphids then squashing them with your finger will help, maybe not get rid of everyone, but they wont be too big a problem, if you have loads, then you just resort to something like soft soap mixed with some cooking oil or olive oil and this sticks to the aphids and they cant move or breath, ladybirds, ordinary birds and lots of other methods help without the use of chemicals, have you noticed whenever you enter the garden department of the stores, the adverts for chemical use is right in your face, all the bottles and potions are in nice bright bottles to make sure you need to buy this stuff, you just need to learn that this method should be your last resort instead of going for these chemicals first, there are lots of reading material to help you out and save the use of these chemicals IF you really want to read it, so try other methods first and if you really cant control the aphids, then spray the chemicals with great care, remember you yourself could be breathing in this dangerous junk too. Good luck. WeeNel.

Wonderful , informative thread.

i had THICK black aphids on my nasturtiums..

soap and water helped somewhat, but i finally just cut the plants at the base of their stems and chucked them into the trash.
These plants were in containers.
i dug up the roots of the plants and chucked them also.

i have a couple more related questions , which may be helpful to all reading this thread:

MY QUESTIONS
whilst i was shaking the plants to get their roots loose, and things, some aphids might have fallen off into the soil.
***do aphids overwinter in soil in egg stage?
**is there a soil drench preferably natural , which will eliminate them in the egg stage in the soil, if they do end up there?

many thanks
alice

Most aphids wont manage to over winter outdoors in the type of weather you get, but the could crawl inside to hibernate depending on what they are, as for the black flies/aphids you had on your Nasturtiums, you could try the next time to just cut the top say 6 inches off the plants as some Black-flies only feed on the soft growing tip (the tender new growth)
you often find this problem with runner beans etc and by cutting the tops off and burning them, the beans/ other plant can just get on with growing, I often have these on beans peas etc and last summer they started on mt dahlias, but after I cut the tops off, all the plants grew new side shoots so nothing was lost. good luck. WeeNel.

Thank you so much, WeeNel.

i sent you a personal thank you to your daves garden message/e mail centre..

thanks again.
alice