Hops with Aphids

Wow! It seems like overnight my hops are covered with aphids. Frustrating. It just doesn't seem fair. I only have two plants. How do the big production farms deal with the little critters without using poison? I've sprayed with soapy water since that's all I have right now. Any opinions about diatomaceous earth? All help appreciated.

NRS

Wonder if you can buy an army of lady bugs? They'll eat aphids if you can keep them around somehow.

Diatomaceous earth will not help. That is meant for ground-dwelling pests. Soap spray is highly effective. I mix 1 tblspn Dr. Bronners Peppermint Soap with about a liter of water in a spray bottle and it is my go-to aphid killer. They'll die back within a day or two after being coated with it. You have to make sure to spray it on the underside of the leaves though, the ones are the tops of the leaves are just the tip of the iceberg. Also, don't spray it during the day when the sun in shining, it can burn the leaves.

And you can buy lady bugs, lacewings, etc to establish a predator population. I have aphids on all 3 of my hop plants. All three have a nice, large, stable population of lady bugs and their larva. For two of the plants, that's enough, the lady bugs eat about 60 aphids a day. The Zeus, however, was getting overwhelmed, and the lady bugs weren't enough, so I hit the aphis with soap spray and knocked the population down low enough that they're not harming the plant, but there's still food for the lady bugs.

I can look underneath the leaves of any of the 3 plants and find adult lady bugs, a cluster of lady bug eggs, and lady bug larva (which also eat aphids by the dozen). They establish populations like this near good food sources, so on some level, it's good to have some aphids as they will attract predators and give them something to eat so they can reproduce. I only get worried if a plant starts to get enough aphids to curl the leaves, or the aphids are clearly reproducing faster than the predators can eat them and start to take over.

Please do not purchase ladybugs, they are wild harvested and are not regulated in any way AFAIK. There are so many other choices (Soap spray, Neem oil, Hard blast with the hose, other predators/parasites) it is not something I would reccommend.

+1 : Hard blast with the hose ...just did that this morning.

(or for smaller amounts of aphids, just use a squirt bottle with water).

theredben said:

Please do not purchase ladybugs, they are wild harvested and are not regulated in any way AFAIK. There are so many other choices (Soap spray, Neem oil, Hard blast with the hose, other predators/parasites) it is not something I would reccommend.

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All good points. I've never purchased them myself, as they just seem to arrive and start eating/reproducing whenever aphids are a problem. Now my garden is so big they just hang around all the time.

Normally I just shoot them with water or stray bottle every morning and it's my bit of fun while drinking coffee ...this year though I had to go away for a while and when I came back, there were a lot of aphids ...more than water could control. So I shot them with Bonide's Citrus, Fruit & Nut Orchard Spray ... they're gone. It also works against powdery mildew. It's all natural (don't sure if it would still be organic or not) .... but it's on my "ok to use if needed list". Pretty much just need to do this once after the flying aphids are gone.