If the temperature of the pile gets to normal, the aphids - Mom, Pop, Junior, and all the little egg aphids, will be toast.

Next time, you might try mixing up some soapy water at 1 tablespoon soap / per gallon and spraying the little guys - do it in the evening so the sun won't burn the wet leaves.

Sorry, I don't post here often enough to know the regulars: is yours a managed, hot compost pile or a more casual slow pile? If you have a hot pile already, and can add more material without slowing the cooking process, you should be fine. Otherwise...

Here in Austin, some aphid species lay eggs on fall perennials. Like the ones growing around my slow-compost bin, as I learned to my sorrow one year.

Good luck,

DSF

Nope, I'm a lazy composter, so it's a bit slower. It freezes in the winter, although this year I plan on working it a bit more. Didn't know if aphids, whatever doesn't get mashed going through the shredder, might 'hibernate' in my compost pile?

Any eggs the Aphids might produce would, most likely, be consumed during composting be the bacteria at work. If Aphids are a problem in a garden the gardener needs to take a closer lok at the garden to determine why.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aphids

I would compost the tomato plants. I figure aphids are on the wind and will be a problem some years and not in others. There's nothing I can do to prevent their arrival.

The aphids coming into the compost with plants would be the adults and as long as they haven't laid eggs or had larvae there already shouldn't prove a problem.

"If Aphids are a problem in a garden the gardener needs to take a closer look at the garden to determine why." I think that's another load of crap.

When the weather is to their liking, they show up. They can even be blown in by the wind. They'll be attracted by certain types of plants. None of these factors means that there's anything wrong with your garden.

I happen to love nasturtiums, but unfortunately, aphids do, too. You can grow them in another part of your yard to draw the aphids away from your tomatoes. They are a known "aphid trap".

Some years aphids are awful in my yard, some years not at all. Once the ladybugs show up in late summer, the aphids are controlled.

Karen

It is well known that Aphids are attracted more to lush green growth then to older growth or growth that is not all that lush and green and that lush green growth is often caused by feeding the plants too much Nitrogen. Simply dismissing that out of hand is an indication of a failure to study gardening.