Only thing that has worked for me

Thanks John.........will procure some Ladybugs ASAP!!

Try to understand your enemy, Aphids appear as the ground thaws out and stay till the ground freezes up again.

Every born prego female gives birth to 200 more every 2 weeks, Aphids can fly 125ft on a windless day or carried many miles on a windy day.

The last I knew, aphids can also carry 5 different plant diseases.

There are over 4,000 species of aphids.

Some old fashion dishsoap 1 tsp per qt/ 1 tbsp per gal of water, applied ever 10 days to 2 week to keep them in somewhat control

lol

What is the bottom bug??

Ravi

The second photo is a Lady Bug larvae.

Alan

Whenever I get aphids I spray them with insect soap first.
It makes them really clean.
Then I spray them with neem oil.
It makes them nice and shiney.
Once they get clean and shiney they find it easier to attract all the hot looking aphid females so they mate like heck.
Once you can't see the plants because there are too many aphids I release lacewings (I think they do a better job at eating bad critters,ladybugs travel around too much and lacewings lay eggs right on top of aphid infestations.)

Where do you get your lacewings? I have tried them several times--eggs and larvae and they haven't worked for me. I only buy ladybugs for inside and they therefore can't leave as they do if you relaese them outside.

I get mine in egg form from the nursery up the street a couple hundred yards.

http://www.tiptopbio.com/

This is the company they use.
I've found if I release ladybugs I have to release them every couple weeks until they establish themselves or they run out of bugs to eat.Lacewings seem to work better for me.
I put the bags out with the eggs in them all over the garden after putting ant bait all over the place(ants eat eggs and baby ladybug and lacewings.)
Usually I only have to put lacewings out 2-3 times a year and they stay around pretty well.
I use 4 benificials in my container garden.
Golden chalcid(aphytis melinus),Green lacewings,Ladybugs,and Nematodes(Steinernema feltiae).

I use the bacteria stuff that makes catapillars,inchworms etc. stop eating too.
I was spending too much time and $ with sprays and as a last resort a couple years ago tried using benificial bugs and found it worked better and I didn't have to do anything but chase them out of the apt. once in a while.

There is a beatle that eats about anything that I might try this year.I don't think it flies either.

Nothing like a bunch of mummies on your plant.
The gold wasps kicked but last year.But they don't stick around after the foods gone.

Thanks--as I said I don't buy ladybugs for outside so they stay where I put them --on my plants. Outside I never have an aphid problem. I seem to have created my own little microclimate. I don't use poisons and I plant flowers and herbs to attract beneficial insects and don't even see aphids outside. I use bt for cabbage moths. I still have a problem with slugs and snails but the other pests seem to be handled by their natural enemies

I think why I get aphid problems is because of the huge ant problem because there is a McDonolds next door (less than 100 feet away)lots of spilled soda and burger pieces all over the place.
Ants farm the aphids and protect them from some of their enemies.
They also have a bunch of flowers all over the place that never gets cared for.I think the ladybugs go over there for the pollen-mature ladybugs eat pollen Lacewings eat it before they lay eggs,but lacewing look for groups of aphids to lay their eggs next to.
Lacewings are supposed to overwinter better than ladybugs too.
I don't like poisons either.Every time I read about some kind of poison thats was supposed to be reasonably safe last year,this year it's being taken off the market for doing something really bad to us or the enviornment.
Like neem oil,it's been pushed as gods gift to man.In the long run I don't think it's much different than soap for killing bugs.Don't really know if it kills viruses either.
It's expensive too.
Gardening wouldn't be any fun if it was easy I guess. :)

First time in five years I got an aphid infestation in late spring. I did some searching and read that squashing the aphids where you find them discourages other aphids.

I tried it diligently for a couple of weeks. Result? I haven't had one aphid all summer.

Could anything else be responsible for aphids deserting my 26-plant chile patch? Dunno. But I'll be trying it again next year if they come back.