Aphids and rose bushes

[basswipe]

We have aphids chowing on our rose bushes and my girlfriend remembers that there is a homemade remedy for this but can't remember what it is.

Anybody out there have any ideas?Raven?

We don't want to use any harsh chemicals like Ortho and such.

[UserRemoved1]

dish soap and water I believe Norman. Spray it with a mister?

[ThrowingTimber]

I always use to just use soapy water in a spray bottle when I was growing the kind

[basswipe]

Googled it.

The three most common things I found is use insecticidal soap(?),a good hard blast with the hose or pick them off by hand.One other thing I found was to place banana peels around the base of the plants,only problem is lotsa bushes and no 'nanas in the house so I'll have to wait to try that one.

Jane thought she remembered something with dish soap.

I did blast them with the hose which knocked them off but that would appear to be a temporary solution.

[Raven]

ladybugs eat only aphids

we have millions ...zero aphids

[basswipe]

Originally Posted by Raven

ladybugs eat only aphids

we have millions ...zero aphids

Can't get more environmentally safer than that.Now to find me some!Gonna try the banana peel trick when I accumulate enough.

We have a much expanded vegetable garden this year.Any concerns there as far as the ladybugs go?

[Raven]

here's the long version:

i plan to buy a thermal cell unit for some bug free times
..soon...
I can't even go water .......without a face full of
eye ball eating nasty flies.... yet when you
sit and relax on a chase lounge they basically
leave you alone...
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to defeat bugs....think about their design...
their skeletens are on the outside....
just the opposite of human design....

so to kill them ..think about what would
penetrate that exo- skeleten ...and not
harm the host plant...
olive oil.. peanut oil.. any kind of oil
thats recomended ... gets thru their exoskeletin
or suffocates them...

the other method is to get some insecticidal dust
i highly dont recommend rotenone) dangerous s h i t
in between their mini wings and amour plating

so ya know what...works pissah... on any kind
of fly problem... diatomaceuos earth...(very harmless too)
it's that white flour.........
looking powder you put in swimming pool filters...

it is actually made from trillions of microscopic sea life
that has died and settled to the bottom of the sea
and then harvested. The tiny shrimp -like sea life once had tiny
skeletons made of silicon as their vertebrae (backbone)
and they are now
microscopic daggers that pierce bug ammour with ease and dehydrate
the bug in the process called desification.

it's why birds dig little holes and flap their wings taking a dust bath
to rid themseleves of mites.... similar in size to an aphid

wd 40 works awesome for hornets....because it easilly penetrates their exo skeleten

[UserRemoved1]

ever want to see a neat site go to www.whatsthatbug.com they have some neat pictures there.

[Raven]

if your able to collect a small quantity of the pest bug

you add them to a small amout of water in an old blender

pitcher and wiz them up in the blender into bug soup...

you spray that (filtetred) mixture back on the infected plants

and it releases the bugs own internal parasites back on to them...

take that ya friggan bug... bug guts soup on you

good site Salty....

[Raven]

you add them at night from the box
they sell them by the 1000 '''
0r ten thousand...or by the friggan pound

but they won't stay put unless they have a garden
or similar multi- plant ....varied plant ...scenario..
near by < ......> then when an aphid infestation breaks out
they'll find it and munch them...

[Raven]

think of kelp.... it grows two hundred feet tall
and has no root system

just attaches itself to a rock...that often moves...

they absorb all their needed nutients from the seawater...

anyways the point i'm trying to make is... bugs won't attack
a healthy plant... so i spray everything with a sea weed spray.

just got done... outback.... veggies especially...