Raised Bed Gardening Blog

Aphids

Created on Wednesday, 22 January 2014 16:41

Aphids in your raised bed garden(s). The little buggers that can devastate your crops. How to deal with them... 

At the first sign of them, wash them off with a light hose spray. This will at least set them back till you can get some ladybugs or lacewings. You can order them on Amazon for about $6. I have found them to be the best, because they crawl all over the leaves of plants and eat voraciously. They will take care of your problem in usually a few days. Second is to use a soap spray such as Basic H2. The problem with the spray, or any other sprays such as cayenne or garlic, is that you really need to get underneath the leaves as well as on top. This is difficult and VERY time consuming. In the Wintertime, when your covers are tightened securely on your bed, an inoculation environment is created for them because of the warmer temps inside as opposed to outside. At all possible times, it helps to open your covers up, either partially, or completely, letting the fresh air and sunshine in, as well as the beneficial insects and birds, which will come in and take care of business. If any of your plants get too infected, then simply take them out, and replace them with new starts. 

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