after s bit of Googling I found this:

Aphids can be destroyed by spraying them with solutions or suspensions containing insecticides which kill them on contact. Covering the leaves with poisons is useless because the aphid draws its food from below the surface. For this reason systemic insecticides are often used. These are absorbed into the plant tissues so that the aphids are poisoned when they ingest the plant juices. Once the leaves have curled up under a heavy aphid attack it is difficult to reach the insects with sprays. A less direct method of control in winter is to spray the trees in the garden or orchard where the autumn eggs have been laid. Poisons dissolved in water run off the thick shell, so solvents such as paraffin, and liquids such as tar oil, are used, these penetrating the shell and destroying the egg. This must be done before the foliage develops, otherwise the sprays will damage the leaves.

The link below will take you to the site. Winter control requires finding the eggs - no small task.

Here is a link that might be useful: aphids in detail

You can order row cover fabric now so you will have it to place over susceptible crops right away. This seems to work best for me. When I do find aphids, I just spray them with water mixed with dish soap.

Okay call me stupid but I'm new to gardening. What are aphids?? Are they spiders, flies, caterpillars, mosquitoes? I want to do a raised bed, but I don't know how to go about it either. I have seen a few suggestions but not sure.

Aphids are tiny green insects that suck the juices from plants. They don't attack a wide variety of plants, but the ones they do in large numbers they can sap the vigor of the plant.

As to the raised beds, it sounds like you need a good book to get you going. Head over to Amazon.com and pick up a used copy of Mel Bartholomew's "Square Foot Gardening." Copies are available for as low as 14 cents plus shipping. There are "NEW Square Foot Gardening" books out now, but I'm still using my same worn copy from two decades ago.

The writing style is personable and the book covers ALL the facets of gardening and can keep you busy for years of learning.

Here is a link that might be useful: Original square foot gardening book

Good news...aphids are easy to kill. Bad news...they like to hide in obscure places making control difficult.

At this point, the best thing you can do is ensure you have practiced good sanitation. Basically, you're removing the ability of the insect or it's eggs from overwintering in dead leaves and plant debris from the previous year. Easiest way is to turn it under.

After this, just keep an eye on things. When you notice a few (or more likely, honeydew), decide what control mechanisms you are going to use.

Odds are, the spaghetti squash was not to blame. Most likely, someone in the neighbor hood brought home a plant from somewhere that had some and the weather was just right to allow a full-blown epidemic to develop. The pesky little buggers could also have hopped an air current...soybean aphids are easily spread that way.

As to what they are, they are a soft bodied insect that feeds on plant juices. For me, see link above.

Odds are, the spaghetti squash was not to blame.

Agree. Squash isn't even attractive to aphids unless they are desperate or unless it has been over-fed with high N fertilizer. They love high nitrogen and will infest any plant or any gardens that are overly nitrogen rich - so make sure that wasn't the cause of your problem.

Unless you brought home an infested plant which you would have noticed, don't blame it on the poor squash. :)

Aphids are common in all gardens and, as others have mentioned, are easy to control IF you get to them before they get carried away with breeding and in your zone the odds of over-wintering are slim.

Dave

Thanks Ralleia!! I've gotten a lot of books from Amazon. Square foot gardening.

Lady bugs eat aphids. You can buy lady bugs for your garden.

I've noticed that aphids really like dock. Since I have a country yard, I can leave lots of dock growing around and they go after it instead. (I just have to remember to cut off the burrs before the dog gets tangled up in them)

I've also heard once they start to be a problem you can spray them with a hard stream of water from a garden hose. But that leaves me wondering what the little critters will do once they get over being shocked and water logged (fly back to your garden?)

Ok now that I have heard from you all that it probably wasn't the spaghetti squash that drew them in...I researched and found out it was NOT aphids, but squash bugs! Sorry! I'm glad I figured out what pest it was. I have millions of little eggs all over the leaves. It was a losing battle by the time I found the little things. They didn't bother my tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, etc. There were a couple on my cucumbers though. So, that being said...anything specific to prevent squash bugs from coming back?? I have a lot of debris from last year piled up next to the garden, so clearing that out would be step one I suppose? Thanks again!!

out it was NOT aphids, but squash bugs!

Big difference and totally different issue. I guess one of us should have asked you up front if you were sure it was aphids.

Type 'squash bug' into the forum search bar at the bottom of the forum page for all sorts of info on them.

Dave

Row cover fabric will help initially but you have to take it off once there are blossoms. They require supreme vigilance. When we find leaves with eggs I remove the leaf and throw it in a well sealed bag in the trash, never in the compost. However, I did find that once the lizards and skinks found my squash, the bugs were much better controlled. Oh, and if you squash the bugs, make sure you are wearing gloves, as they are kinda nasty.

The bad things about squash bugs:
They're ugly and their young are like masses of spiders from a scary sci-fi movie.
They stink if you squash them (beware even of using gloves -- the stink gets in the gloves. They are, after all, in the stink bug family.)
They *can* destroy squash plants.

The good things about squash bugs:
Unlike imported cabbage worms, you won't end up accidentally eating them.
If your plants are quite healthy, the bugs will just be ugly and stinky, but they won't rob you of squash.
They can be killed by spraying with water with a little Palmolive dish soap (but the soap might be bad for your garden, I don't know -- I just discovered the deadliness of Palmolive by accident, and I don't know what else it might kill.)

I cut out the piece of squash leaf (or do the whole leaf as rishtoshnm says) that has the eggs on it and put it into a big black trash bag. I do the same with all the plant residue in the fall -- Rodale institute calls this the "clean up trick" or some such -- you throw away all those eggs so they aren't there in the spring. So yes, burn those crop residues or send to the dump.

Oh! and my favorite remedy, which has worked every year I've used it: plant garlic in each squash hill. Seriously -- this really works.

willylynn, aphids come in a variety of colors; green, black, gray, yellow and probably others. They are found on the undersides of leaves and on the buds of plants. elisa Z5, you can buy ladybugs and they do eat aphids, but once the aphids are gone they will fly away.

I too am an advocate of alliums as a deterrent plant, garlic, onions, chives, or ornamentals. I've found that arugula grown next to fennel is less susceptible to flea beetles, too. Squash bugs suck, I've been fortunate that they are rare for me. There are a lot of pumpkin growers up here, and they all use some kind on spray.

I finally saw my first aphids. I was helping prune a tree when he mentioned there was a lot of aphids. Boy they are small, these were green.

I got the book Square Foot Gardening. My friend had she is letting me borrow it, it is filled with such good info.