I don't know, it's like magic they just appear one day all over our plants. I've started using Bayer on my lilies and roses and have not seen one aphids.

I've been out there today swishing them off with my fingers. They don't oughta mess with my McCartney rose!!!

Don't know where they come from either, but a good dose of ladybugs or green lacewings will eradicate them!

Stephanie

There are two winged sessions of aphids in most years. A early spring hatch and a late fall hatch. After these then the rest of the cycles are wingless. I found spraying them off with water works well enough most of the time if not I will use soap and water if I get repeated infestions that won't stop. Then I start to look at the plants infested to see what I am doing wrong. Wrong plant or wrong location?, too much fertilizer?, stressed in other ways that I can prevent? I use them to help teach me what I am doing wrong.
Just my thoughts
Happy Growing David

Thanks, David. Looks to me like the early spring flyers should be finished by now. Maybe they live quite some time? Yeah, I've seen some things with wings that are probly aphids.

I also found some buds that had big bites taken out of them like an apple. That ain't aphids. I located a dastardly little 'inch worm' guy that I suspect.

Can you use any old soap? I know I could look this up, I'm just being lazy.

I have gone back and forth about putting out ladybugs. I want to put out native American lady bugs, and I think a lot of them that you can purchase are the other kind - are they from Japan? - the kind that swarm inside in the winter. I hate introducing foreign flora and fauna because it so often edges out the natives and upsets the ecosystem.