So when you originally posted were you seeking information on how to prevent the problem in the future or just posting a casual observation? That's what I assumed - looking for recommendations. If so then eliminating box elder trees, raking up and disposing of the tree droppings, and treatment with specific pesticides are the standard recommended solutions. And removal of that species of tree shouldn't be scoffed at. It has proven to be quite effective in many parts of the country according to several state extension studies that are published. Many aren't even aware that there is such a thing as a box elder tree, what they look like, and the role they play in the bug infestation. While it is true that the bugs can exist even without the trees they won't be in such excessive numbers. But if tree removal isn't an option for some reason then I guess all you can do is avoid planting the areas where they will normally congregate - like the south side of any structures. Or I guess if you had to plant in that area then you'd have to rig up some sort of plant cover or shelter to block excrement access to the plants. Dave

Stupid question time...Do you have to dechlorinate plant water???? I filled up a shallow bin sunday night and put them into it after I rinsed off the aphids with the hose.....sprayed a bit of the miracle grow in the bin from the sprayer. Monday morning they were slightly faded and the edges of the leaves were wrinkling back. I picked the remaining aphids off Monday evening and put them back in the pond. They look horible compared to when I took them out covered with aphids.. Could have the heavy rinsing from the hose really damaged them?

I had these this year as well. It looked like tiny black coffee grounds covering my lilies. It turned out they were black aphids. I purchased live lady bugs and they ate them up. Good luck!

Canokie, It is likely they are aphids. See the link below for a photo of aphids. What you choose to do about them is up to you. I generally don't do anything on most crops and I'll explain why in a second. That's also my approach with most other pest insects. Our gardens are natural ecosystems and the less we interfere in the ecosystem, the better it works. So, to garden in the most sustainable way, I don't get too excited about most plant-eating bugs. If I leave them alone, beneficial insects will take care of them for me. It is the hardest thing in the world to leave the aphids alone, but over several decades of gardening, I've learned that it works for me and my garden. I sometimes will knock the aphids off the undersides of leaves with a sharp stream of water from the hose if the lady bugs are slow to show up, but I don't like doing even that small amount of intervention because the lady bugs won't produce more lady bugs if there are not any aphids and other bugs to support the babies' nutritional needs. Like everyone else, aphids are happy to see spring arrive and they go right to work eating and reproducing. That's usually when we notice them on our plants. In most cases, if we ignore them and leave them alone, the beneficial insects will come along and take care of them. In my garden, it usually is the ladybugs that show up anywhere from 3 to 10 days later to eat the aphids and other pests. I won't have ladybugs show up and reproduce in appreciable numbers until there is a food supply to support their reproduction, so I avoid killing off the first aphids so the ladybugs will have a reason to come to my garden. Once they are here, they stick around and do tons of pest control for me. You never will have a bug-free garden, nor should you expect to. Remember that for every pest that attacks your plants, Mother Nature has created a pest insect or disease that will control that pest over time if allowed to do so. I have found that there are only a few plant-eating pests that warrant any intervention whatsoever on my plants. Aphids are not one of them. This is our 14th spring in this garden, and I bet I haven't sprayed for aphids more than 3 or 4 times in that 14 years. It just isn't necessary in most cases. I practice integrated pest management, always choosing the least-invasive method of controlling pests and then working my way up to methods that are increasingly invasive if needed. That escalation rarely is needed. For the most part, if I leave the pests alone, something in the garden ecosystem takes care of them for me. There are a handful of pests I'll attack aggressively when they first appear early in the season. Generally those are leaf-eating pests for which I've never found a great and fast early solution. One such pest is the caterpillars (imported cabbage worms and cabbage loopers) that show up on brassicas in early spring. I will hand-pick them if I have time in order to keep them from decimating/destroying young, small plants, and if I don't have time to hand-pick them, I'll spray the plants with neem once. Only once. I don't believe in repeated spraying. It doesn't fit in with my goal of having a sustainable garden ecosystem that takes care of itself. I'll do the same with Colorado potato beetles when they first appear. I'll hand-pick them and drop them into soapy water to drown. Usually I have to do that for a week to 10 days, checking for them every morning and evening, and after that, something in my ecosystem takes care of them. Usually it is a turtle that shows up every year and lives in the garden the rest of that year, but it often doesn't show up until sometime in April. Sometimes it is toads, or maybe birds, or praying mantids. My garden is full of all kinds of living creatures that will eat the plant-eating creatures, but only if I leave them alone and don't intervene too much. When intervention is needed, I start with the least invasive methods...using knocking pests off the plants with a water hose or hand-picking them and either squishing them or drowning them in soapy water. In our rural area, grasshoppers are a major issue. I usually order and apply a natural disease that kills hoppers once in early spring when grasshoppers are in the smallest instars. It only works well on them when they are small, so I tend to use it in April and then I move on and don't worry about the hoppers after that. If their population becomes an issue in July or August, I'll deal with it then, but it only is an issue maybe 2 years out of 5. I may or may not do anything to combat corn ear worms and European corn borers. Most years they do only minor damage, and it is easy to cut the damaged portions of the ears away and use the rest of the ear. I will aggressively attack the nymphs of squash bugs before they have a chance to grow into full-sized squash bugs. I don't have many predators in my garden that go after the squash bugs, and I try to protect squash plants from squash vine borers for the rather obvious reason that they will kill your plants, and fairly quickly too. It is your choice how aggressively you choose to attempt to control insects in your garden. My choice is to garden as naturally as possible, and believe me, I did not grow up that way. When I was young, my Dad was quick to grab a broad-spectrum pesticide and spray, spray, spray. What I learned from watching him do that year after year after year was that the more he sprayed, the more pests he had. That made me realize there had to be a better way. In his later decades, he learned that too although he was slower to convert to organic gardening than I was. When I first converted from gardening in a more conventional way, all I really did was start substituting pesticides that were organic in nature for pesticides that were synthetic in nature. As I matured as a gardener and became more confident in my knowledge and understanding of what worked best for me, I used less and less pesticides of any kind and found that the fewer pesticides I used, the fewer pests I had to worry about. Just because a pesticide is organic rather than synthetic in nature does not automatically mean it is safer. Many organic pesticides are very toxic and I won't use them under any condition, and two that are on that 'won't use' list are rotenone and pyrethrins. After we moved here was when I realized I needed to continue to move beyond mere organic gardening to true sustainable gardening. When you are surrounded by thousands of acres of land where no one sprays much of anything, ever, for pests, you expect you might have lots of pest problems. Yet, you learn than you can peacefully co-exist with most of the millions of insects per acre than surround you. So that's what I focus on. My method is not for everyone, but it works just fine for me. My garden always produces very good yields in even the worst of years, and it produces huge yields in good years, and it does it with very little pest intervention on my part. I'd rather spend my time outdoors enjoying myself and focusing on more important tasks than worrying about every bug that flies, creeps, crawls or hops by me. I'm rewarded with a garden full of plants that produce just fine even if they don't look perfect, and by garden companions like toads, frogs, lizards, birds, snakes (the non-venomous ones are welcome), turtles and beneficial insects of all kinds including lady bugs, green lacewings, butterflies, bees, beneficial wasps in all sizes, ground beetles, etc. I know this is a long answer, but I want for everyone to think about whether or not it is necessary to try to control every living creature in their garden. Every creature in the garden eats something or someone and every creature in the garden is eaten by something or someone. So, if I leave the system alone for the most part, it works the way it was meant to work. Also, in our hot climate it is very easy to damage your own plants using homemade soap sprays or by using oil sprays in high temperatures. I've seen more people damage their gardens by spraying too much than spraying too little. Your mileage may vary. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Image of Aphids Being Attacked by Lady Bug Larvae