I am having problems with dying plants and aphids...so, I am ashamed to say I sprayed with Sevin Dust...I couldn't take it anymore!!! I want some okra from these plants I have been growing so long...and now it looks like flowers are about to open, while, concurrently the plants are having the life sucked out of them. How sick is this??? I can't handle it. So, I sprayed. I am spraying again in the morning too, because I can see some of them are still living. So, tomorrow I am fertilizing them also. I moved the buckets onto the concrete so no additional water from the sprinklers will hit them. I want to control the water more. It has been raining a lot too, so hopefully that will slow up a bit. God, please let my okra plants be fruitful!!!!!
----P.S. I ammended this post because I had written in here I thought the ants were trying to eat the aphids, and this was incorrect. Silly me.
9 comments:
Julie, when you see ants in amongst the aphids, it's because the ants are tending them, like a farmer tends sheep. The aphids excrete "honeydew", a sweet liquid that the ants like to drink, so they will actually protect the aphids from predators (like ladybugs, etc.) which helps the aphids proliferate. So you might want to try spraying the ground around the buckets, or where ever you see ant trails. Also, there is some kind of super-fine high-pressure hose attachment you can get that blasts the aphids safely away with plain water. I don't remember the name, but I'll try to find it for you.
OK, it's this.
Cindy...oh yes...I KNEW this, but temporarily lost my mind because my Mom had said they were trying to take care of the aphids for me! (The ants). But yes, I did know what you are telling me here, and just temporarily lost my mind!!! LOL. Anyway, I am tired of washing the aphids off. I can wash them off every day and they are back thick as thieves the next day! So, I am gonna stick with the spraying and then never garden again! Ha! LOL...not likely...but I still feel like I never want to grow food again anyway! Too discouraging all the way around!
Cindy- That Bug Blaster is pretty neat. I am actually designing a device for this purpose myself but using a squeeze bottle I could fill with a soapy, oil mixture for organic control. I have all the parts, except one connector, and then I can put it all together and test it!!! If it works I will be showing it on the blog!
Hope it works for you. I bought some insecticidal soap in a little spray bottle to try to wipe out the mites that have been infesting my plants. It works just OK, not really great, but at least it's not toxic.
When I was in the greenhouses the orach also had an aphid problem. My Adenium got hit with aphids and leaf hopers. I used insecticide too. :(
How double indeed Julie.....
So sad.
My plants inside had lice too and I sprayed them too..... Well the problem is solved and the plants survived....
But it is not nice I know....
Have a nice day!!!
Hope your okra does well! I'm thinking I saw a baby cucumber where a bloom was, but it could be my over active imagination at work as well! I had to dust my Bougainvilleas down with the same stuff...the blasted worms won't stay off of them!
Have a great week!
I hope your okra plants are fruitful for you also, Julie! How interesting about the ants and the aphids.
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