Aphids throw the first punch

mctiggs

10 years ago

I've been spending too much time away from civilization. I noticed yesterday I have aphids, which is not a huge deal.

I sprayed the plants with veg oil/water/dish soap as well as crushing as many as I could find.

But I swear they are insulting me!

See this picture and the next one.

Comments (9)

mctiggs
Original Author
10 years ago
Cheeky!
jifjifjif
10 years ago
HAHAHAHAHA. Very funny.

Not the aphids, the picture you created. Sorry to hear you had to deal with them at all!
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woohooman San Diego CA zone 10a
10 years ago
Are you sure that damage wasn't caused by the oil and sunny hot days? Blasts of water every 3-4 days will get most aphid infestations. The remainder, just clean up with a couple soap treatments, no oil. Oil will kill your beneficial insects also.

Awesome graphics animation...LOL

Kevin
seysonn
10 years ago
IMO, the damage is caused by what you sprayed.
BTW, I did not see any aphids or nymphs.
mctiggs
Original Author
10 years ago
The picture was taken prior to spraying the plant with anything, ever (even water). I'm sure they were aphid nymphs, I've been down that road a few times. I just sprayed the underside of the leaves where they had been laying eggs. The spay was extremely diluted, just enough to get them to slip off. As of this morning, they haven't returned, perhaps they've retreated to plan their next assault.

(Sorry the picture is a bit fuzzy, the bottom left is clear).
woohooman San Diego CA zone 10a
10 years ago
Those are aphids...LOL Just find it hard to believe the lesions were from aphids. Maybe a bit of sunburned damaged cells or fertilizer burn?

Anyhow, glad you got your aphids taken care of.

Kevin
mctiggs
Original Author
10 years ago
So the aphids were cleared away for about 10 days, then yesterday I noticed one plant SWARMING with black ants, and sure enough the aphids came back with a vengeance. Strangely, only one plant out of 18 in buckets in the same area was affected. And it was not the original plant from the earlier post - that plant is clean now.

I saw this godawful thing on top. What the hell is it? The mothership? Sorry the pic sucks.
scorpion_john
10 years ago
I agree with woohooman, looks like sunburn to me. aphis suck!! i'll tell you what I use. look up acclaim, it is an anti-bacterial soap that Cintas supplys us with at work, it drys the hell out of your hands. its terrible on your skin, so I decided to try that instead of dish soap.. and it just nukes them. they don't even know what hit them, half the time they don't even fall of just dry right where they are on the plant. I would be careful about the strength, I just put a few drops so I get very few suds when shaken. John
mctiggs
Original Author
10 years ago
Well, I isolated the one plant that was infested, everything was cool, and then they came back in force. This weekend I noticed they are EVERYWHERE. I was doing some crosses and they are packed into the flowers even! I was religiously spraying bunches of them off with a mix of water and cayenne powder. I admit defeat, I will have to look up this acclaim stuff.