You can get the hose out and just wash them off with a strong stream. Alternately, you can use some Safer's insecticidal soap spray on them, which is pretty harmless... or you can make your own soap solution with some water, but mix in a gentle soap like Ivory (don't use anti-bacterial stuff). Then spray to coat the leaves and stems.

Also look for ants because they farm the aphids and physically bring them up onto the plants.

You could have left the branch and watched a miracle. Lady Beatles can eat up to 300 or so nasties a day depending on species. What they wouldnÂt eat, the nympths from the eggs they would lay would finish off the others.

If you choose to use chemicals, the only sure thing is that you will kill the lady Beatles and the eggs laid along with the pests. Nature is providing you with an inexspensive and healthy solution to your problem.

Every year I have a ROS next to my porch that looks overrun with aphids. Once the first Lady Beatle shows up, within a week the problem is gone.

randy