Aphids 1 Tom 0

[tcy1227]

Hi all,

I recently posted some pictures of what were confirmed to be aphids on my plants. I had released a number of ladybugs, which seemed to keep them at bay for a while, but now all the ladybugs are gone and the aphids are back in more numbers!

Does anyone have any other suggestions on how to get rid of aphids?

I am going to buy more ladybugs as soon as it stops raining here, but I'd like other ideas, as well.

Thanks,

Tom

PS - do aphids hurt the fruit that is growing now?

https://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn132/tcy1227/DSC00167.jpg

https://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn132/tcy1227/DSC00165.jpg

These are the old pics - MANY more of these bugs all over my plants now...

[TZ -OH6]

I pretty much ignor aphids on flowering sized plants. I will rub off the largest concentrations on young leaves with my thumb but thats about it. The plants can support a pretty heavy aphid load without flinching, and there has to be a fair number of aphids on the plants to support a predator presence. The lady bugs will hang around at a low level that the aphids can support.

Aphids do not harm fruit.

[rainbowgardener]

agree with everything TZ says. It doesn't work if you are a farmer with a field of tomatoes, but for a small scale gardener with a few tomato plants, just take kleenex or paper towel (I'm a little squeamish about bare hands) and squish them. Leave a few to keep the lady bugs happy. They won't hurt your fruit, they just want the plant juices and a few of them won't hurt the plant either. The good news about aphids is that they are slow and stupid and just sit there and let you squish them.

[tcy1227]

Thanks for the info - I have been pretty busy squishing them, so I will keep it up.

[The Helpful Gardener]

A spritz of light sugar water can convince lady bugs that aphids are still around, so they stay until the next crop of bugs shows up (old organic greenhouse trick)...

Neem oil is perfectly safe and quite effective... so is a hard stream of water. So is squishing...

HG