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Grrrr! I have been fighting aphids for the past three months, well ... I cannot tell a lie, I haven't been fighting hard enough it seems .. maybe I was just hoping a strong spray from the hose every now and again would chase them away. WRONG! These little buggers are attacking my plants! A few weeks ago I found aphids on a couple of plants on the pool deck, one was a little H. crassipes I rec'd in trade a couple of years ago and the other plant wasn't a hoya, but I can't remember which plant it was. I thought I killed all of the aphids, but they must have traveled! Today I was looking around and decided to bring H. obovata out from it's corner on the deck and give it a good spray with the hose. Upon looking closely I found bunches of these ugly yellow aphids all over the plant! Tomorrow I am bringing out the big guns (BATS) and dealing with these ugly bugs for good!
LOL, I don't know anyone who likes these bugs, well except maybe some mad scientist somewhere? I had never seen an aphid until last year ... now, mealy bugs are a different story, I've had more than my share of those little cotton ball buggers! I usually spray them with isopropyl alcohol and that takes care of em', hmm maybe I should try alcohol on these aphids!
Soapy water even will take care of them, but BATS will protect your plants from them for a long time. I don't think they're protected for a full year though - I had a small breakout recently (okay, one plant) and all of mine were treated last Sept.
I agree that BATS doesn't protect for a long time. I've used it in the past and within four or five months have had recurrence of insects.
I'm surprised I haven't seen mealies, as they seem to be prominent here during hot, humid weather, like what we've been having for a few weeks now. Our high's have been in the mid 90's with lows in the mid to upper 70's and heat indexes hanging around 103ºF and higher! It's so hot, the birds even seem to be perching in the trees with their beaks hanging open! The only creatures that seem to love the heat are the bugs! I found army worms on a few plants on the pool deck yesterday ... I figured that was what was chewing holes in leaves. I didn't plant any tomatoes this year because the past few years army worms have invaded them ... even tried one of those topsy turvy tomato planters ... still had army worms! BATS is going to be my best friend tomorrow!
Name: Carol Noel Hawaii (near Hilo) It's all about choices.
BATS will not travel out to the flowers...so your best bet is to spray with alcohol or a soapy water. Also, put ant baits out...the aphids are farmed by the ants...get rid of the ants and no aphids... If you get a bad infestation you can dunk the whole pot, head first into a mild soapy solution with a tiny bit of oil in it....especially good for H. compacta!!!
Yep ... ants have been a major problem in our backyard this year, don't know why they are only in the backyard and nowhere else. We have a few different kinds of ants, big bull ants, small red ants, those horrid teeny fire ants ... I have quite a few welts on my ankle from being bit/stung by ants last week! My husband wanted to put down some ant killer but I have about 10 bird feeders around the yard and lots of birds feed on the ground when other birds scatter the seed out of the feeders. I'm so worried about the birds eating the ant granules and being poisoned so I told him not to put any insecticide on the lawn. I need to stop feeding the birds for about a month and then treat the lawn.
My plants that are infected with aphids are all inside the screened pool area ... I guess I will leave the cat inside for a few days and treat that entire area for ants, but I'm also going to use a combination of vegetable oil/dish soap on the plants and maybe follow up with alcohol if the soapy water doesn't suffocate all of them! I have a spray bottle of alcohol that I keep in my supplies in the garden shed!
Though my Newport Beach concrete contractor did a great job with my patio, I an having hard time fighting aphids on my plants surrounding it. Any remedies please?
I have been fighting aphids for the past three months, well ... I cannot tell a lie, I haven't been fighting hard enough it seems .. maybe I was just hoping a strong spray from the hose every now and again would chase them away. WRONG! These little buggers are attacking my plants! 
A few weeks ago I found aphids on a couple of plants on the pool deck, one was a little H. crassipes I rec'd in trade a couple of years ago and the other plant wasn't a hoya, but I can't remember which plant it was. I thought I killed all of the aphids, but they must have traveled! Today I was looking around and decided to bring H. obovata out from it's corner on the deck and give it a good spray with the hose. Upon looking closely I found bunches of these ugly yellow aphids all over the plant! 
Tomorrow I am bringing out the big guns (BATS) and dealing with these ugly bugs for good! 
I had never seen an aphid until last year ... now, mealy bugs are a different story, I've had more than my share of those little cotton ball buggers! I usually spray them with isopropyl alcohol and that takes care of em', hmm maybe I should try alcohol on these aphids! 
