My mother in law was talking about aphids the other day. They are killing her entire garden and she is organic, so no pesticides for her. She found these bags that you hang around the garden made by Insecticide, and she gets hundreds in there and the problem is almost under control. She says they swarm it and go into the bag and can't get out. Then she empties the bags into 5 gallon buckets of water to drown them and rehangs them. They are reusable. This might help you1

Aphids are attracted to high nitrogen levels in plants. So what and how much have you been feeding? They also colonize so once an infestation is developed on a certain plant, they gather there.

What have you been spraying? You can literally wipe out hundreds at a time just by putting on a pari of gloves and running your fingers up and down the stems and under the leaves. You can also just blast them off the plant with plain water.

Dave

The advice of knocking them off by hand or water hose, I always wonder about that, do they not go back to the plant? Wiping them off with gloved hand, hundreds if not thousands of leaves, getting under each leaf, seems like and impossible job. Water jet would also be impossible to get under each leaf. You would have to lift the leaves off the ground or turn them up by hand. Seems to me a very laborious job.

I have sprayed them with usual insecticides (not organic). The aphids are low in numbers for a while and then grow back again. So far they are not affecting the plants growth but if I don't spray I guess they will.

Since they are not bothering some types of plants right next to other plants, i thought there must be something in the plant itself that makes those plants not susceptible. So there must be some varieties of each type of vegetable that are not so attractive to aphids.

I think that Melissa must be talking about a Japanese beetle trap. :-)

Not at all laborious and proven quite effective over many years, not to mention often recommended here.

I can clean aphids off a 50' row of squash plants in about 15-20 min. with gloves and a sprayer filled with water. And no, since most aphids can't fly not to mention most are squished in the process, they don't just go right back to the plant.

I'm not an organic grower nor opposed to the use of some pesticides but you have to do the same things - lift the leaves and get under the leaves - if spraying insecticides as you would with spraying water but you aren't creating generations of pesticide resistant aphids with the water either. And only specific pesticides are listed as effective against aphids anyway.

But no, there are very few aphid resistant plants much less aphid resistant vegetable varieties and serious infestations are often caused simply by the use of excess nitrogen fertilizers.

Dave

Oh, it's so helpful to learn why the aphids seem to gather on some plants but not others!

And I guess I didn't realize they can't fly...

Rhizo1---LOL! Thank you!!! You are right, I was wrong! I was talking to my mother in law tonight about it haha!!

I grow roses and aphids always attack them when they are leafing out in the spring. Again, some will be covered with them and some will have none. The spray hose does a great job. You can also fix up a spray bottle with dish detergent and water and that will take care of them. There isn't any need to use insecticide on them. Also, if you see lady bugs or lady bug larvae (they look like little orange alligators), the feed on aphids and you should let them do the job if the aphids aren't too thick.

If you do use the squish method, do wear gloves, they can stain your fingers.