I had them something awful last year. I just gave up. All my other plants in the same flowerbed went untouched!!

I am not sure I understand your posting. Are "Oleander aphids" a type of aphid or were they just on your Oleanders? I responded to your posting because from May-June and into July, my normally pest free containerized (outdoor) Oleanders were covered with aphids. I used insecticidal soups and always dried to hose them off. I also recently planted Milkweed, they seem bugfree. I have both the Swamp Milkweed and the common tropical one that has reseeded all over the place quite prolifically to my surprise, but no bugs. The aphids on my Oleanders quite suddenly disappeared by late July (they literally covered the plants too!). I was wondering if it drought related because it has stopped raining in parts of the coastal Mid Atlantic and Northeast and we are in moderate to severe drought.

Oleander aphids are a particular type of aphids, but they were on my milkweed plants. I actually don't have any oleanders. Perhaps if I did, the aphids would have set up camp there instead. The problem with eradicating them from the milkweed is that you could also be killing off some Monarch butterfly eggs. Interesting theory about it being drought-related. I wouldn't say we're in a drought, but we haven't had significant rain for awhile, and you would think that a heavy rain would knock them off of the plants. Hmmm...

I have milkweed beetles camping out on my Common Milkweed. They're pretty. I just take pictures of them. I'm harvesting seeds from my Swamp Milkweed. This is fun, but the end of harvest is near.