Comments on: 3 Curious Things I Didn’t Know about the Aphid

By: Harry

Harry — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:36:36 +0000

There’s only one caveat about simply washing them away with water–those little buggers can climb right back up onto the plant. The best solutions to an aphid problem are mild soapy water, followed by introducing beneficial insects like ladybugs or lacewing larvae. Be quick about it, though. Those little beauties can increase in number exponentially.

By: Ohne Hosen

Ohne Hosen — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:34:01 +0000

And now I look like a tool since Michelle beat me to posting. :-)

That’s what I get for carefully crafting a comment between spurts of productivity at work…

By: Ohne Hosen

Ohne Hosen — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:31:44 +0000

I’m thinking the shirt in part refers to the fact that aphids subsist on sweet, sweet plant juices, which they obtain by sucking.
So by scribbling in “don’t”, you may be enforcing your affection for aphids, but an entomologist may beg to differ…

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:10:12 +0000

You realize the T-shirt was a play on words, too, right? Aphids do suck; it’s how they feed off your plants lol.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:35:10 +0000

It’s quite amazing how quickly ladybugs will clear a tree of aphids. We had a Hawthorne tree that was dripping due to aphids, and a simple purchase of a bag of ladybugs from the garden store (1500?) cleared them up. One of the suggestions before putting them in the tree was to spray the ladybugs with sugar water, which causes their wings to get sticky and they can’t fly off. By the time they can fly again they’ve adopted the tree as a temporary home and they feast on the aphids!

By: Marion

Marion — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:19:16 +0000

Did you know that ants and ladybugs are mortal enemies? Ants keep aphids as milk cows, and ladybugs are rustlers!

We used to have hellish problems with aphid goo on our cars thanks to a stupid tree plan in our condo complex, but an entomologist ships in ladybugs now, and the kids spread ‘em on the trees. How’s that for a cool childhood memory?

By: donner

donner — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:32:49 +0000

Good thing you didn’t buy poison – any poison you buy to kill the aphids would also kill any benefcials like ladybugs…which throws the whole cycle off whack, and you end up with more aphids after awhile…

another option would be to mix a concoction of soap and water in a spray bottle and spray them…

From a quick Google search of ‘aphids and soapy water’:

Mildly soapy water is more effective at killing aphids because it kills those that remain attached to the host. However, it can leave a residue if not rinsed off later and can damage sensitive new growth or roots if too much soap is used. Soapy water is useful for species such as roses that can be damaged by water on the foliage. Soapy water rinsing is not necessary as frequently as rinsing with plain water.

By: Witty Nickname

Witty Nickname — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 13:29:30 +0000

Born Pregnant, eh? Seems like poisoned grain would be a threat to their survival as well…