They're aphid magnets. I get a zillion on them every year. Good food for the spiders and ladybugs.

I've never had them on lupines before. You don't do anything about them?

If you want to spend some $, the company Natural Insect Control (near Toronto) ships aphid predators all over Canada. I'm thinking lacewing larvae would be great for your situation. I've ordered ladybugs and lacewings from them a couple times.

How many lupines do you have?

Last year I had a ton of aphids taking over my Emily Carr roses, so I just searched the yard, found two ladybugs, put them on the rose bush, and voila !

They must have eaten them all because I didn't have a problem after that =:)

Otherwise, do you have any insecticidal soap? I had to use it last year on my bridal wreath spirea, as it was absolutely covered in aphids.

In high ladybug years I don't see a lot of aphids. This year I had tons on every bud of my Rugosa roses. Ants were farming them and there were not many ladybugs around. I sprayed them with Safers soap, I find it pretty effective against aphids if you spray 2 days in a row.

Hey, Hi Gillian !

We posted at the same time.

Lynn

I spray them off with a hose if I get around to it. But invariably the spiders, wasps and ladybugs come and eat them.

Lupines don't really seem to be affected by it. I keep waiting for my clump to die off but it keeps coming back strong as ever.

LOL Lynn yes we did. At least we agreed. ;)

I sprayed them with the soap. The plants look terrible. Haven't seen a lot of ladybugs around - just a couple in the veg. garden yesterday.

Cut off the ugly parts. It'll send new material up.

They literally have covered my lupines flower stems, last year and this, appearing right after the lupines are done blooming. The stems are wall to wall aphids. Portions of the leaves are covered with a sticky liquid from the aphid activity. I guess we must not have had many lady bugs :-) Last year I sprayed them with a little insecticidal soap. This year, I just cut off the stems (which are ugly at this point anyway) and left about a foot's worth of leaves. Most of the aphids were removed with the stems, so I'll just wait to see if they come back.

Maybe i'll cut mine too. I sprayed them hard with water last night too.