Root Aphids destroying my Viola's!

[Luvpatch]

Hello from Houston! I planted several flats (8 flats) of viola's in a landscape bed in the front of my house about 2 weeks ago. Within a few days one or two plants would wilt and look sick. Every day another plant would be affected. I was able to easily lift the wilted plant out of the soil and saw that the roots had been eaten. Using a high powered magnifying glass I was able to identify root aphids. I also think I have fungus gnats as well. I know that root aphids can later be flying winged aphids and I can tell them apart. It looks like I have both insects. I have had problems with fungus gnats in the past but never root aphids. I did some research and I did do a soil drench with Azamax 2 times . Today I dug up another plant that had wilted and I still saw root aphids. It seems like they are attacking one or 2 plants at a time.Can anyone give me other suggestions for getting rid of these root aphids? Thank you so much for any suggestions you have!

[angiecis]

I had a horrible problem with aphids on my plants. They were loving my borage which was weird because borage is spiky. I planted marigolds and it attracted ladybugs which ate all my aphids!! Ladybugs are lifesavers.

[imafan26]

I have a similar problem with root mealybugs. The predators get the ones on the plant, but not in the soil. As long as you are not eating your violas, you can use a soil drench of imidicloprid or pyrethrin (Talstar). You will have to either take off the flowers or net them to keep the bees away for the duration.

The other thing to do would be to dig up the plants, kill the root aphids or destroy the plants and get new ones and plant them elsewhere. Solarize the soil if you can or introduce beneficial nematodes and control the ants. Carefully removing the soil, bag and trash but you want to make sure all tools are cleaned and the soil does not migrate to contaminate other parts of the garden.