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Pests & Diseases - Australia

aphids on roses

25 years ago

can anyone please inform me of any homemade sprays to prevent the infestation of aphids.

I'd rather prevent them, than kill them after they have actually done the damage.

I have around 60 bushes (mostly hybrid teas) and to walk around each and every bush daily and squash the aphids is quit labourious.

Thanx

Papa Meiland

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Comments (4)

gardenlen_hotmail_com
25 years ago
aphids are easy 3 or 4 successive treatments of hosing them off with a strong spray from the garden hose will do the trick, then find the ants nest and move them on.

lens garden page
dramakid68_hotmail_com
24 years ago
Hi Papa Meiland,

Whilst there are heaps of sprays out there I tend to agree that a natural remedy is far more desirable. I had approx 6 rose bushes in my garden and was amazed (after a search on the net) to find that planting a humble garlic bulb, skin and all, straight from the supermarket, in the garden bed with the roses worked absolute wonders. I honestly never saw another aphid again and mine were suffering just like yours. The garlic will sprout and you will get a clump something like garlic chives in amoungst your roses which is not 100% aesthetically pleasing, but for the low cost, low fuss rewards it brings, I think it is a wonder of nature. Good luck - cheers - Dramakid/Wendy B.
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The roses themselves will chase them away. "Abstract In warm weather, Macrosiphum rosae (L.) walks off buds of hydrid tea roses during a 'critical period' coinciding with the opening of the sepals. This behaviour could not be related to histologically detectable barriers to feeding, nor to changes in the water content of the tissues or in their composition with respect to total soluble carbohydrate, amino nitrogen or phenolic compounds; major changes in tissue chemistry, effected by spraying the bushes with urea, did not affect the time at which the aphids left the buds. 'Tissue sap' expressed from stems and sepals showed a significant increase in catechin content after rather than during the critical period. Once expressed, however, sap from buds at the critical stage showed a sharp in vitro rise in catechin content over a few hours, up to levels approximating those against which the insects discriminated in choice tests. It is proposed that the insects could well be sensitive to a developing capacity of tissue to accumulate catechin, possibly in response to their feeding activity." Here is a link that might be useful: link for above
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Very cool. I've never had any big number of aphids on the roses after the buds start opening on the first flush. They just clear out. It seems the plants don't get serious about defending themselves until the flowers are threatened.
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I too love my garden spiders... If I ever get JBs in my garden, I would want a gigantic fuzzy tarantula hunter spider with banded legs, hahaha for catching them... I am not looking forward to getting those JBs... Well, terry I am having great difficulty having wasps and bees in my garden...I think my next door neighbors are all killing them before they have the chance to settle in my garden...Everything starting in late July is so far deserted, the bee balm the lavender, the oregano, the nepata, sigh! once in a blue moon I'll get a handful of tiny wasps and native bees. But maddeningly enough they will disappear again! It's pretty sad when most of the fliers are...ugh! flies! This is why it's so important to save the bees. but thank goodness at least the spiders aren't killed off.. I think it's because they don't fly off to a different territory but stay in my rose bushes... I love the huge cobwebs they spin at the base of all my large rose bushes... It keeps away the aphids... If only they would go to the top of my roses to keep away the thrips...But my guess is that they don't like hot pepper spray I keep spraying on my blooms, LOL!
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I do nothing, and the bugs and birds come to eat them. If I'm cutting blooms for a vase, I'll hose off what I've cut, but that's about it. Here's a pic from May showing one member of my aphid-eating crew. If you keep blasting away the aphids, there won't be enough left to be discovered as a food source by the things that eat them. It's sorta like throwing bird seed out on the ground -- one or two seeds will go unnoticed, but a handful will be spotted. :-) ~Christopher
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justG
23 years ago
Just soap, not so much detergent as huge amounts may alk the soil, seems to work for me. The inclusion of some citronella kills them on contact and the residue seems to act as a preventitive. Sorry to suggest a propriety product but in AU I find Clensel to work just fine. It's cheap, available in bulk and I spray it on every thing and I feel it may have a degree of anti nibble proprety about it. The plants look clean and shiny also.
missrevett
23 years ago
Over the course of my childhood, I was forced to tend to my mother's 27 bushes. She would mix about a teaspoon of liquid dish detergent in a spray bottle of water and just give each bush a good misting. You will have to repeat it every few days, especially after rain or heavy dew. Also, make sure that you do it in the evening so the sun doesn't burn your babies!
But, since that sounds like a lot of work for your 60 bushes, the garlic sounds much easier.
Have you tried purchasing lady bugs (lady beetles) and releasing them in your garden? If you have enough aphids to make them stay, releasing one or two containers of them is much less like work compared to planting garlic and spraying.
;)

Here is a link that might be useful: Lady Beetles

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