Apids on Harvested Hops, what to do.

I harvested about 4lbs of Cascades yeaterday and was so stoked because they looked and smelled beautiful and I just bought a vacuum sealer to package them with. I spread them out on cookie sheets in a dark room with a heat fan blowing on them for the night. No sign of aphids at all.

Earlier today when I checked on them it looked like an aphids bomb went off! They were everywhere. All over the flowers, sheets they were in and crawling over the table. After a moment of freak out I put them all outside for a few hours while I scoured the net for what to do.

I found info for what to do while they are still growing but the info after harvest I found was either trash them or don't worry about them because bugs get trapped in our hops and food all the time.

I wouldn't have been too concerned had their not been so many of them.

Here's what I did that seemed to do the trick:

Since it seemed like there was an exodus happening it seemed like putting them outside was a good start. After a few hours I took a steel mesh strainer over a garbage can and handful by handful shook them in the strainer until the debris falling through slowed down.

I then put them in cardboard boxes to observe for awhile. After about an hour I only saw a few aphids left, a huge improvement!

I'll keep an eye on them and report back if anything changes but so far so good.

I hope this helps someone dealing with the same thing

It might be hard to see but here's a couple pics of the infestation.









And here's the strainer and hops in a box.

"That's protein, baby!"

Can't make out the aphid bloom, but I can imagine how freaky that would be to have an aphid swarm emerge from an oast. I think I'd leave them spread out for a few days just to make sure the aphids have cleared out...

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

"That's protein, baby!"

Can't make out the aphid bloom, but I can imagine how freaky that would be to have an aphid swarm emerge from an oast. I think I'd leave them spread out for a few days just to make sure the aphids have cleared out...

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Good suggestion Day Tripper because even though I was able to shake a lot of them off yesterday, by this morning I had more aphids conglomerating on the edges of the drying pans and boxes. Not nearly as many as yesterday though. I took a wet paper towel and wiped all the edges down. I'll keep an eye on them. They're almost dry so if they don't have many more aphids on them I'll package them up this afternoon.

If you're in no rush (and from the images this thread has put in my head, I wouldn't be ) keep them spread out and drying for a few more days. The one thing aphids want is to suck plant juices, and once those cones are really dry the aphids will head for the proverbial hills...

Cheers!

I picked Friday and packaged Sunday night. I ended up sifting them 3 times because each time I sifted another round of aphids would emerge after about an hour, each time getting a smaller and smaller amount. The sifting really knocked them off and helped out though. I don't have a spot outside or in a shed where I can dry hops so I had them spread out on a table in the basement with fans blowing on them. I didn't want a bunch of stray aphids roaming around my house once they decided to leave the plant so I had to take them outside to sift them then bring them back in.

It ended up being more work than I anticipated for 1lb 6oz of hops. I guess the lesson learned for me is to break open the cones when harvesting to check for bugs because there was no sign of them on the exterior of the leafs or stems. Had I broke them open I probably would have seen them and could have decided if I wanted them or not.

Hopefully they will just move on as your hops dry out. That is what some of the more knowledgeable folks have said here.