Aphids - squash them, hose them off or spray with horticultural soap. I know people often use dish soap but I did that one year and defoliated the whole bush (suspect it contained detergent). Not fatal, just unsightly. My eryngium seedlings are being mashed by them at present.

NEVER.. use dish soap.. its actually dish detergent... and detergent will harm plants ...

i presume you guys know that.. its for other readers ...

ken

I strongly advise that you simply use your fingers to squish them all up and down the stem. Also, using a strong spray of water can dislodge them.

Yeah - it was back in the day though, Ken and one of those lessons I learned real quick. I am a serial squasher now although I do tend to wipe my aphid-y fingers on my clothes (but probably best to not venture into my filthoid habits).

SeniorBalloon, you’ve posted about aphids in the past. You mentioned gaining control of them on your roses, and even explained to someone else how you did it! What’s the confusion? Different color of aphid?

I figured that insecticidal soap would be the treatment, but due to color didn't know what they were. My question here is more about what than how to treat, unless they were some odd bug that needed something more.

Yesterday I hit them with a strong, fine mist spray and knocked 95% off, and then more soap later in the day. I did learn from the roses you really don't want to spray the sauce if the sun will be on the plants.

What was funny, and a bit horrifying is, I knocked most of them off and a few hours later when it was time to get soapy, they had already begin to multiply. Tribbles of the insect world for sure.