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aphid help
Hi, I'm a lurker on here, but am hoping you ladies can help me out.
I have a terrible aphid infestation on my hedera ivy. It's the annoying little black aphid. I've been spraying that with pyrethrin, but since they've moved on to my vegetable garden, I've changed to an organic pesticide. It seems to work when I spray directly on the stupid things, but with the ginormous amount of ivy we have around the terrace, there's no way I can see all of them. And as you know they procreate like crazy, so miss one equals having hundreds more in mere days.
I'm at a loss.
I know ladybugs help, but we also have lots of ants that protect the aphids from the ladybugs. (The ants refuse to die as well, I've tried organic ant powder and boiling water over their nests, but they just refuse to die.)
I've been using a hand sprayer to spray my pesticides. We do have a pressure washer (not sure if it still works) but I think that attaches to a hose, so I won't be able to add pesticide to that water.
Does anyone have any idea how to help me get rid of these icky, annoying little beasts?
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What I'm looking forward to in 2012:
Eating our way through (northern) Italy on vacation
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Re: aphid help
How much damage are they doing? I don't kill anything on my English Ivy, because nothing really affects it's appearance. Which vegetables are they now attacking, and what do you see happening? Is it affecting the crop? If not, you may not need to do much of anything.
Ants will be killed with Terro traps. They'll probably prefer Terro as a food source over the aphids because there is no work involved for them to get the food payoff. I'd keep spraying the aphids with soap or Pyrethrin if they're a big problem.
I hate aphids too. I sprayed them with soap every single day last year. It was as if there was no end to the aphid army.
"The meek shall inherit the earth" isn't about children. It's about deer. We're all going to get messed the fuckup by a bunch of cloned super-deer.- samfish2bcrab
Sometimes I wonder if scientists have never seen a sci-fi movie before. "Oh yes, let's create a super species of deer. NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG." I wonder if State Farm offers a Zombie Deer Attack policy. -CaliopeSpidrman
FWIW, our pressure washer has a little reservoir that holds soap and mixes it into the water from the hose. You could put your pesticide in there, likely. If yours doesn't have it or doesn't work anymore, they're pretty cheap to rent from Lowe's or Home Depot for the day.
Or I wonder if you could use a Miracle Grow LiquaFeed container and put your pesticides in there?
Thanks for all the tips! We just moved into our home last fall, and our ivy looked HORRIBLE. The new growth looks nice now, except for all the aphids on there, and the ants and aphids just keep eachother safe and well fed I guess. So fat in my garden they're attacking the atichokes, zucchini and tomato (which is at least 50 percent of my total crop), so yeah, I want to get rid of them. I live in the Netherlands and ladybugs are crazy expensive, otherwise I would go with those too. I'll try soap and I'll check if I can add it to my pressure washer (or invest in a new one!)
Thanks!
My food blog
What I'm looking forward to in 2012:
Eating our way through (northern) Italy on vacation
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home D