Hi, how did the milk/water tip work with your aphids? I’ve just sprayed all my swan plants with soapy water from washing machine (lady in Garden Centre suggested). Two days later, still inundated with these darn yellow aphids! They are everywhere! I probably am trying to control too late as I didn’t think to look for them before.
Going to be on to it next season.
The only cats I have are ones that I’ve removed from main plant and put on potted plants away from large plants. This has worked somewhat and have had 2 butterflies hatch, four more crys’s. Not many considering the number of butterflies I’ve seen laying eggs.
I have this March19th see just one 4-spot yellow ladybird on my swanny among the yellow aphids. I do hope she(?) has a large family!!
Getting cool here in Christchurch now.
I tried Yates conqueror oil, applied it quite heavily. It killed the aphids and did not harm the caterpillars.
Won’t they simply return to continue eating the plants?
Simply brushing the aphids off with a 1 inch paint brush works well. Of course you want to be careful to look for the cats and ladybirds.
You can buy ladybird eggs. Got a packet of dusky ladybird eggs from bioforce.co.nz recently and they ate most of the aphids. Seems to be working really well.
They hatch straight away so you want to put them out as soon as you get them. They’re all over the garden now although I assume they’ll eventually move on.
A lovely lady at the Garden Centre told me that spraying the aphids with one part milk to 2 parts water kills the aphids.. she said the lactic acid in the milk does the trick.. I just wondered if it would kill the caterpillars or not… I am going to try it on a small patch of swan plant that doesn’t have any caterpillars, but wondered if anyone else had heard of this….
I have noticed the aphids are back again; there are a few ladybirds around; but I am squashing them too.
I have also seen lots of white butterflies and their lave on my plants – which I am removing when I can find them!
Oh hell! I have just come home from two weeks away and the aphids in my butterfly house are having a field day. Sadly, no chance of any ladybirds getting in there. I will have to have a better look at things on Sunday – too busy tonight and tomorrow. Might have to start again from scratch. Bother!
Thanks Elizabeth – I now have a new colour of ladybird I have never seen before so I had to have another look at your link, but it is different. It’s shiny black with 2 little orange spots like head lights, and it munches aphids just as much as the others.
Caryl, I don’t think the ladybirds would like detergent so I’m not doing that, just leaving it to nature, apart from sometimes trimming the very infested parts as the honeydew goes mouldy and horrible.
How lovely, having all those ladybirds dealing with the aphids for you! I’ve found a different sort of ladybird on my swan plants this year – the Mealybug Ladybird from Australia (Cryptolaemus montrouzieri), which seems to relish the yellow aphids too. I’m sending a photo of one making a meal of an aphid on the plants this morning. I need to move some onto the woolly aphids in our orchard! Here is a link to the page with photos and description of the adult and the larva:
http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_ladybirds/MealybugLadybird.htm
And, thinking about squishing the aphids, please do look first to ensure there aren’t any friendly larvae of either Ladybirds or Lacewings there, having an aphid meal!
Check the ‘Photos’ tab to see my picture of the cluster of orange ladybirds ready to set forth. Only a few minutes later they were scattered onto different parts of the plant having a great feast – thanks guys!
Lucky you, I saw only one ladybird visit and she’s long gone. I spray my aphids with detergent and squash as many as I can but they are ever present in smaller numbers now fortunately. I have lost no plants to them sofar.
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