What are these little black things on my chives?

[RogueRose]

I noticed all these flies buzzing around one of my chives. Then I looked closer and saw all these little things all over them. I'm kind of tempted to throw the whole thing out as its in a planter. Whatever these are I don't want them to spread. It's only one ONE chive plant (my oldest one). I have 2 other chive plants. They're fine. Not on any other plants.

[applestar]

I think those are aphids.

[RogueRose]

They come in black?

Everything in that planter is going in the garbage tomorrow morning. I usually get an order of ladybirds but I haven't gotten them yet.

[applestar]

They do seem to come in every color....

I know of two kinds of black aphids. The matte black one you have on onion/garlic and glossy black ones I call "black oily aphid" that swarm my cherry trees.

Other colors :
- tomatoes get the brick red ones and green ones. Green ones typically infest peppers.
- brassicas get the waxy gray ones
- milkweeds get the yellow ones with black legs
- peas and favas get... What do the peas get? ... They get black ones but I can't remember which kind.

[RogueRose]

Well right now these only seem to be on the chives....which is weird because there's other things in that planter - catnip and thyme. But since its easy to get rid of stuff in there I'll just get rid of the stuff in there, disinfect it or something and plant something else in it. I hope they haven't spread to anywhere else. I had some yellow or green aphids on my tomatoes last year but they didn't last too long. The weather has been so up and down I haven't ordered my ladybugs yet though I have seen some floating around the garden this year from last year. My tomatoes so far are PERFECT I just don't want anything f-ing them up!!!

[Susan W]

Oh those aphids! I'd dump everything, dirt and all in a baggie and into trash. Wash container.

I've had a couple of bad aphid take overs, and as I recall one on chives I brought in mid winter to jump start spring. I washed etc, and gave up. In checking, found most aphid babies are girls, and they don't need a boy to make more aphid babies. Do the math!

[RogueRose]

It has been dumped!!! Trash day WOULD be Monday but now it isn't until Thursday. Can't come soon enough!!!

[mattie g]

I had a petty bad case of those same black aphids on my garlic last spring. Neem oil took care of them. But I guess if you can afford to get rid of a planter full of aphids, then have at it!

With all the weird weather this spring, I've seen all kinds of issues going on in my garden, and aphids are at the top of the list. But I'm keeping on top of it with neem oil and DE. Fingers crossed!

[imafan26]

Black aphids attack onions and beans. Usually they attack onions that are in distress. They don't bother healthy ones that much. Nasturtiums are companions for onions. The nasturtiums will attract the black aphids to them and also attract the lady bugs that eat them.

At this time of the year when there is a lot of new growth, aphids, mealy bugs and scale come out in many forms. I don't and cannot buy beneficial insects. I plant companion and nectar plants to attract beneficial insects. If there is enough aphids to eat, the lady bugs will come as long as you don't spray insecticides and give them a chance. Lady bugs really are attracted to anything blooming in the carrot family: dill, fennel, caraway. Black aphids are attracted to nasturtiums. Also the ray flowers sunflowers, marigolds, calendula, zinnia attract a lot of lady bugs as well.

In a month or two the aphids will be less of a problem and the pesky spider mites will have take their place.

[RogueRose]

Thanks everyone! I am glad to hear they only will go after things in the onion family....that chive they were on is an old chive. Its been coming back for 3-4yrs which I think is why they probably went after those. There's green onions in a planter next to it and some other chives but they were only on those chives. In the same planter there were thyme and catnip but they weren't on that. The planter wasn't too far away from mysnap peas. I wasn't really willing to take the chance on the aphids...I have more chives and I can plant more catnip and thyme!

My garden is pretty short on flowers other than some lillies and roses that came with it. What can I plant in an area that is partly sunny? Thanks to the hurricane some trees came down in the back so I have some area that I can plant back there now that there's more sun....even though I rent I pretty much have free rein on the garden.

[pash]

If you want Ladybugs in the garden Plant yarrow. That is where they like to live. They should lay their eggs there and and the larve can eat more than the Lady Bugs do, keeping Ladybugs in the garden year round. There are so many types of yarrow some so beautiful that their flowers can be used in flower arrangements.