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| I just realized I have a severe infestation of aphids on my rose bushes. They are stacked on top of each other on all the newest growth areas. What are my options in dealing with them? I dealt with them on pepper plants before with insecticidal soap, but it was a localized and a small infestation. I used it on the current rose infestation but I am guessing this stuff isn't going to be enough. Any suggestions.
Bruce |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Aphids are the easiest pest to control. Insecticidal Soap will work fine but so will just a hard spray from the hose. Or you can do what I do which is to gently sweep up the length of the new growth with my fingers and wipe them off. |
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- Posted by flaurabunda 6a, Central IL (My Page) on Wed, May 9, 12 at 17:40
| Yep---I'm squeamish, so I use those yellow dishwashing gloves. Cheap & effective! |
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- Posted by DandyLioness Sacramento, CA 95821 (My Page) on Wed, May 9, 12 at 17:50
| I have the EXACT same thing happening to one of my roses. It's like you took a picture in my backyard! Has anyone had luck introducing LADYBUGS to the garden in a situation like this? |
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- Posted by jacqueline3 9CA (My Page) on Wed, May 9, 12 at 17:58
| if you don't spray, ladybugs will magically appear, and if you are lucky, so will tiny birds called bush tits which eat aphids. I just wash them off with water from the hose, and also wipe them gently off with my fingers. If you whack the growth where they are (gently,so as to not break it), they will fall off. Evidently once off they can't climb back up. Jackie |
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| Thanks all. I will wash down the plants later this evening after the soap dries and hopefully kills the little pests. The infestation looked so bad that I thought they were doomed. They were crawling over each other they were so thick. Bruce |
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- Posted by henry_kuska z5 OH (kuska@neo.rr.com) on Wed, May 9, 12 at 19:19
| Roses produce a chemical after the initial aphid attack that discourages further attacks. Title: DYNAMIC ASPECTS OF THE CHEMICAL RELATION BETWEEN THE ROSE APHID MACROSIPHUM-ROSAE AND ROSE BUDS Published in: Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata, volumn 37, pages 129-136, (1985). Abstract: "Dynamic aspects of the chemical relation between the rose aphid [Macrosiphum rosae] and rose buds.In warm weather, M. rosae (L.) walks off buds of hybrid tea roses during a critical period coinciding with the opening of the sepals. This behavior could not be related to histologically detectable barriers to feeding, nor to changes in the water content of the tissues or in their composition with respect to total soluble carbohydrate, amino nitrogen or phenolic compounds; major changes in tissue chemistry, effected by spraying the bushes with urea, did not affect the time at which the aphids left the buds. Tissue sap expressed from stems and sepals showed a significant increase in catechin content after, rather than during, the critical period. Once expressed, however, sap from buds at the critical stage showed a sharp in vitro rise in catechin content over a few hours, up to levels approximating those against which the insects discriminated in choice tests. The insects could well be sensitive to a developing capacity of tissue to accumulated catechin, possibly in response to their feeding activity." Authors: Mary Louise Flint(a),Steve H. Dreistadt(b) Authors affiliation: Published in: Biological Control, Volume 34, Issue 1, July 2005, Pages 38�46. Abstract: "Release of adult convergent lady beetles, Hippodamia convergens Gu�rin-M�neville (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), provided inundative control of aphids (Homoptera: Aphididae) infesting Rosa hybrida outdoors in nursery containers and in the landscape. In potted roses, a single release of 100 lady beetles per 19 liter plant provided 66�88% aphid control during 1994 and 1995. In the landscape, a single release of about 175 or 350 lady beetles per 0.5�1 m tall shrub during 1994, 1995, and 2002 failed to reduce aphid density. However, each of one or two subsequent releases of about 1400�1750 H. convergens per shrub reduced aphid densities in the landscape to near zero (93�100% control). Releasing 10�20 beetles per flower bud controlled aphids on shoots caged to prevent insect dispersal. On uncaged rose shoots, 100 or more H. convergens per bud were required to control aphids. The effective rate for inundative release in landscape roses was about 2300 beetles/m2 (210/ft2) of shrub-covered surface, or two orders of magnitude greater than the 11�22 beetles/m2 (1�2/ft2) commonly recommended by beetle sellers. Based on three lady beetle releases during April�May when aphids are abundant on rose in California�s Central Valley, lady beetle costs are about the same as one soil drench of the systemic insecticide imidacloprid. Rose cultivar affected aphid density, but cultivar did not affect augmentative predation. Cultivar selection and high-rate predator release are complimentary strategies for aphid management on rose." |
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| Put on your thin rubber gardening gloves and simply rub the buggers off. Grab softly below the tip with all of your fingers and gently pull upwards. You will either crush or brush enough aphids in a very few minutes to keep the population in check until the birds and the lady bugs catch up with their job. Washing with a hard stream of water also works, but the smashing is very satisfactory and puts you in close contact with the roses....What else do we have them for? |
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| UPDATE: Insecticidal soap will be considered a full success. I have inspected the plants each of the last two days after treating with insecticidal soap and all I find is blackened Aphid bodies. And on another Garden Web forum (Hot Peppers) a member mentioned parasitic wasps as a control for Aphids. I am suddenly seeing them all around and even on the rose plants. Bruce |
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| I spent about $6.00 for around 500 ladybugs and they cleaned out my rose garden of aphids so fast the roses didn't know what hit them. Then after a few days, they all flew off, but then a few weeks later some eggs hated, I had ladybug larva eating the few aphids that had come back. They flew away a bit later. I haven't had any aphids now in over a month since I got them. |
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