Tag: aphids

Kissing aphids goodbye

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I’m still battling aphids in the plant wall, but I am making headway.  Instead of seeing a dozen, I’m seeing an occasional very lethargic speck of green with legs.

Jill at JMH Water Gardens gave me a recipe for a fish safe aphid spray that seems to be working really well.  The fish are alive and the aphids aren’t.  I see that as being the measure of success.  Oh, did I mention it’s cheap to make out of common stuff?  Yeah, that too.  Blend oil into a beaten egg white, store in the fridge.

Jill’s recipe says 1 cup of oil to 1 tbsp of egg white.  I confess to not being that precise.  Store in the fridge, mix a bit with water in a spray bottle and spray.  I did say I wasn’t that precise, didn’t I?  Her instructions say 2½ tsp of the egg/oil mix to 1 cup of water.  I don’t need that much at a time so I mix a little over a teaspoon to ½ cup of water.  Spray as needed.  It doesn’t keep so dump what you don’t use right away and mix new each time you need it.

Water lillies and aphids

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I went out to water a couple mornings ago to discover what I had thought were seeds on the water lily pads weren’t.  Everything in the pond was covered with hundreds of aphids.  Ugh.  I guess I need to wear my glasses when I check things out.  Wadly missed it too but he’s been working long hours for National.

I hosed the aphids off the leaves, swished the lone water lily in the water until the aphids were washed off and overfilled the pond washing the floating aphids off onto the ground.  There are benefits to an above ground pond.

The second wash off  was yesterday.  I’ll keep an eye on this.  Jill at JMH sent me a recipe for a fish safe aphid killer.  It is my sincere hope I don’t need it.